WIEM 2019 conference

The conference is organised annually by the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Warsaw in cooperation with the Center for Economic Analysis (CenEA). The keynote lectures were given by Jörn-Steffen Pischke (London School of Economics and Centre for Economic Performance): “Of Mice and Merchants: Trade and Growth in the Iron Age”, and Alessandra Faggian (Gran Sasso Science Institute): “The geography of hatred in Italy: do economic factors play a role?”.

Adam Pigoń (IBS) presented results of research, conducted together with Michał Ramsza (IBS and the Warsaw School of Economics), regarding an impact of fiscal rules from Switzerland, Germany and Poland on deficits and public debt in the long run (→presentation). Simulations indicate that the Polish rule, on average, prevents debt levels from crossing prespecified values, despite having a relatively large variance in specifying deficits. The rule implies anticyclicality of public expenditure, although it is smaller in magnitude than in case of the other two rules.

Marta Palczyńska (IBS) presented her findings on the role of cognitive skills and personality traits for the selection into overeducation and for wage consequences (→presentation). According to her research, among younger workers agreeable individuals are more likely to be overeducated while conscientious ones are less likely. Accounting for heterogeneity in personality and cognitive skills among people with the same level of education does not reduce overeducation wage penalty.

Photos from WIEM 2019 are up on the conference website.