CEFIR Launches Visiting Speakers Program, Looks for Speakers

To develop its interdisciplinary approach, support the professional development of its research group, and cultivate long-term working relationships with other researchers, CEFIR is launching a visitors’ seminar series in which senior academics from outside Russia will visit CEFIR to present their work and interact with the research group. The World Bank is financing the program.

The program of each visiting speaker will consist of the following components:

• Research seminar or mini-course at CEFIR open to all members of the local academic community

• Meetings with policymakers and discussion about the progress of reform in the visitor’s area of expertise

• Individual meetings and training discussions with CEFIR researchers about research and policy consulting techniques and methods

• Papers that will become part of a special CEFIR working paper series.

Visiting speakers need to meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Their research should be relevant to the Russian political agenda or transition issues, although it does not have to concentrate on Russia. Visitors should be knowledgeable about the experience of other countries confronted with economic problems and reform issues similar to those Russia faces.

• There is no seniority requirement, although visitors are expected to have published extensively in leading academic journals on the topics of interest. In exceptional cases visitors without strong academic publications, but with at least five years of experience in policy consulting in the area of interest, may qualify.

• Visitors should be formally affiliated with recognized academic or policy consulting institutions or be employees of foreign government institutions.

CEFIR has appointed a selection committee consisting of senior staff at CEFIR and other economists familiar with CEFIR’s research. This committee includes Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, academic director and senior researcher at CEFIR and a research affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research; Ksenia Yudaeva, policy director and senior researcher at CEFIR; Sergei Guriev, professor at the New Economic School (NES), vice rector of NES Outreach Activities, and senior researcher at CEFIR; Victor Polterovich, professor at NES, head of the NES Academic Committee, and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Scott Gelbach, researcher at CEFIR and at the University of California at Berkeley.

Factors to be assessed by the selection committee include the scope for a long-term working relationship with CEFIR, the relevance of the candidate’s research to CEFIR’s research and policy advice agenda, the absence of senior in-house expertise in the candidate’s research area, and the candidate’s professional experience in the area.

Interested parties should provide a detailed curriculum vitae, an explanation of interest, and availability to the Selection Committee, Centre for Economic and Financial Research, Nakhimovsky Prospect 47, Office No. 720, Moscow 117418, Russia, or by email to cefir@cefir.ru.