CERGE-EI welcomed Nobel laureate Philippe Aghion as part of its Distinguished Speakers Series and on the occasion of the institution’s 35th anniversary. During his visit, Charles University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Economic Sciences, honoris causa, and he delivered a public lecture titled The Power of Creative Destruction: Rethinking Capitalism. He also met with students, alumni, faculty, and decision makers for academic discussions and exchanges. In this student interview, Professor Aghion reflects on his own path from mathematics to economics, the social motivations behind his research, and the areas he believes will offer the most meaningful opportunities for young economists and PhD students today. Continue reading Philippe Aghion on Growth, Poverty, and Meaningful Research
Tag Archives: interview
“A Huge Sea of Research”: Visiting CERGE-EI
Abylay Tursyn, a PhD student in economics at Narxoz University and a visiting student at CERGE-EI, combines economic research with a background in IT and data-driven system development. His work focuses on public procurement, particularly the behaviour and long-term sustainability of suppliers in electronic procurement markets. During his stay at CERGE-EI, he presented his research at a Brown Bag Seminar, examining why some suppliers remain active on Kazakhstan’s national e-procurement platform while others leave the market. Continue reading “A Huge Sea of Research”: Visiting CERGE-EI
Finding Confidence and Community at UC Berkeley
As part of the Places You’ll Go series, CERGE-EI spoke with PhD student Winnie Njoroge about her research stay at UC Berkeley, where she joined a vibrant academic environment shaped by development seminars, Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) meetings, research discussions, and exchanges with leading scholars. During her stay, she refined her job market paper, engaged with the broader U.S. academic community, and found that mobility can be both intellectually demanding and deeply encouraging. Continue reading Finding Confidence and Community at UC Berkeley
At the Harris School: A Research Stay at the Frontier of Political Economy
As part of our Places You’ll Go series, we spoke with Vladimir Shchukin a CERGE-EI student about his research stay at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, one of the leading centers for political economy. In this interview, Vladimir reflects on how he chose his destination, what he gained from presenting his work in a new academic environment, and how discussions with leading scholars and fellow students helped sharpen his research interests and strengthen his motivation to pursue an academic career. Continue reading At the Harris School: A Research Stay at the Frontier of Political Economy
Research, Risk, and Growth: My Time at Yale
As part of the Places You’ll Go series, this interview with Margarita Pavlova follows a CERGE-EI student’s research stay at Yale University — a journey shaped by academic ambition, unexpected confidence, and the search for the right intellectual environment. What began as a strategic step to advance a Job Market Paper became a much broader experience of growth: from engaging with leading scholars in labor economics to discovering that top academic spaces are not only demanding, but also deeply energizing. In this conversation, she reflects on choosing Yale, navigating the road to the US, and what the experience taught her about research, collaboration, and believing in her own ideas. Continue reading Research, Risk, and Growth: My Time at Yale
Meet our alumni: Coming home to build impact
After graduating from CERGE-EI, Mária Valachyová returned to Slovakia and built a career in private banking that led her to her current role as Head of Strategy at Slovenská sporiteľňa (Erste Group). In this interview, she reflects on the key turning points that shaped her path, the real-world impact of research and strategy on households and businesses, and the innovations her team is delivering. Continue reading Meet our alumni: Coming home to build impact
Boston Bound: Study Stay at MIT
In this entry of the Places You’ll Go series, we follow Maksim Smirnov, a CERGE-EI PhD student, to MIT for a spring research stay shaped by one goal: sharpening a job market paper in the right intellectual home. Drawn by MIT’s strength in instrumental variable models and an unusually welcoming econometrics community, the visit became both a research accelerant and a crash course in academic connection. Continue reading Boston Bound: Study Stay at MIT
Meet Our Alumni: Regulation, Competition, and the Digital Economy
Our Phd alumnus, Viliam Druska, is Senior Director of Regulatory Economics at Ooredoo in Doha, Qatar. After starting out in a technical field, he transitioned to economics during the region’s shift to a market economy and went on to build a career in telecommunications. In this interview, Viliam shares the key choices behind his journey, explains what regulatory economics looks like in practice, and reflects on why balancing short- and long-term incentives matters for investment. Continue reading Meet Our Alumni: Regulation, Competition, and the Digital Economy
Conclave Insider: Game Theory of Choosing a Pope
The papal conclave is often portrayed as a closed, ritualized event. But behind the secrecy lies a voting procedure with clear strategic logic. In this interview, CERGE-EI faculty Jan Zápal introduces the study Electing the pope: Elections by repeated ballots which he coauthors with Clara Ponsati. It explains how the pope is elected through repeated rounds requiring a two-thirds majority, why this system can in principle last for months or even years, and how economists model such elections to understand what kinds of winners the rules tend to produce. Along the way, they connect the conclave to other institutions that use similar repeated voting, and argue that long-standing rules can also confer legitimacy on the final choice. Continue reading Conclave Insider: Game Theory of Choosing a Pope
From Prague to Chicago to Princeton, via the New York Fed
What starts as a single email can turn into a research-shaping journey. As Gayane Baghumyan, a PhD student and aspiring experimental economist at CERGE-EI, describes in this Places You’ll Go interview, it unfolded like this: a CERGE-EI–supported research stay became six months at the University of Chicago, hosted by John List, followed by a Stapleton Award–funded visit to Princeton and a conference stop at the New York Fed. Along the way, she discovered an intense seminar culture, world-class faculty who were unexpectedly down-to-earth, and “random conversations” that sharpened her research design and broadened her view of how economics can influence the world. Continue reading From Prague to Chicago to Princeton, via the New York Fed