Research: Theoretical and Policy Oriented

Research at SITE tackles the institutional challenges of economic transition. SITE researchers work on issues such as the development of financial systems and corporate governance institutions, the role of the government in promoting or undermining market institutions, and the evolution of public sector institutions and regulatory frameworks. Understanding the role of institutions—functioning banks, reliable civic institutions, and the enforcement of laws and contracts—requires not only theoretical tools but also empirical study. SITE leads a number of international projects to improve the quality of data in transition countries. SITE researchers have collected extensive data at the microeconomic level (firms and households), both from official sources and through surveys in transition countries. For example, SITE has built up the largest and most reliable databank available on Russian enterprises.

Building Local Capacity

An important part of SITE’s mission is to assist transition countries in developing their own centers of research and knowledge and building local capacity in teaching and applying modern economics. SITE has recruited the first Russian graduates of top Western Ph.D. programs to return to work in Russia, at the Russian European Centre for Economic Policy (RECEP), a Tacis (European Union) funded, Moscow-based research and policy think tank.

Since 1997 SITE has managed and developed RECEP, with two partners; the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London, and the Département et Laboratoire d’Etudes Théoriques et Appliquées (DELTA) in Paris. RECEP offers an academic environment for high-quality, policy-relevant research on the Russian economy. The project is integrating RECEP into the international research community and increasing the Centre’s contribution to the policy process and public debate in Russia. (See www.recep.org for information on faculty research—including papers presented at RECEP’s annual conference in December 1999—and activities.)

SITE is now spearheading a similar initiative, the Baltic International Centre for Policy Studies (BICEPS) in Riga, to attract back students from the West to an exciting research environment and involve them in the policy process in the Baltic countries. In addition, SITE is supporting capacity-building projects at the New Economic School and Economics Education research Consortium (EERC) in Moscow, the European University in St. Petersburg, the Kiyv-Mohyly Academy in Kiev, CERGE-EI in Prague, and Central European University in Budapest.

International Networks

SITE collaborates closely with CEPR, of which most SITE researchers are fellows or affiliates. In July 2000 SITE/RECEP will co-organize, with the World Bank and the William Davidson Institute, CEPR’s large annual conference on transition to be held in Moscow. In its activities, SITE also works with the European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES) in Brussels, the Brookings Institution, the Eurasia Foundation, the Institute of Economic Transition at the Bank of Finland, the University of Amsterdam, and others.