1 A World-Class Education for A World in Transition The collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia left a region rich in spirit.

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A World-Class Education for A World in Transition

The collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia left a region rich in spirit and potential but severely lacking in economic knowledge and understanding.

Doctorate In Economics -

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The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education-Economics Institute (CERGE-EI), based in Prague, Czech Republic, is the premier U.S.-style Ph.D. program in economics in the former Soviet bloc countries.

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Fall of the Iron CurtainThe Velvet Revolution

CERGE-EI was founded in 1991 in response to the post-communist countries’ acute need for a new generation of economists who would understand the functioning of market economies.

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Education CERGE was created as an independent institute of Prague’s historic Charles University, its introduction of an American-style Ph.D. program in economics reflecting Charles’ commitment to scholarly endeavor since 1348.

Research The Economics Institute (EI) was founded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic as a center of economics research, facilitating rigorous independent inquiry into both theoretical and applied economics.

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Education The Rector of Charles University and the President of the Academy of Sciences have formally established CERGE-EI as a Joint Workplace of the two institutions. This strengthens CERGE-EI’s role as a model for breaking down the artificial division between education and research that prevailed during the communist regimes.

and Research

Working Together

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CERGE-EI’s Mission

1. Economists for government, academia, and industry

2. Research in theoretical and applied policy-related economics, especially in the transition to free markets

3. Free and open inquiry, and nondiscriminatory training

To Provide:

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Accreditation: The degree at CERGE-EI is accredited by both the Czech government and the New York State Board of Regents, whose overwhelmingly positive site visit report confirmed CERGE-EI’s ranking as a world-class doctoral economics program.

Czech Republic

United States

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Academic Management

The Director

CERGE-EI is administered by its Director, Jan Hanousek, whose quality and entrepreneurship was recognized in the New York State site visit report as a young “professor whose star is clearly rising.”

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Executive

Academic oversight is by the Executive and Supervisory Committee (ESC) composed of such leading scholars asPhilippe Aghion (Harvard),Orley Ashenfelter (Princeton),Randall Filer (CUNY), Jan Kmenta (Michigan), Gerard Roland (Berkeley),Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia) andJan Svejnar (Michigan) to assure the high quality of CERGE-EI appointments, research and teaching.

and SupervisoryCommittee

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StudentsOver 150 students are actively enrolled

40% are women

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CERGE-EI Students Come From:

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All Transition Countries

Almost all countries in the region are represented at CERGE-EI. The student body is:20% Russian20% from the Balkans20% Czech, 15% Ukrainian15% from other fSU Republics10% Polish, Hungarian & Slovak.


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Quality & StandardsAverage GPA of entering students is

above 3.6 out of 4.0

Students accepted to CERGE-EI are outstanding scholars from a wide variety of cultural and educational backgrounds. Admission is based on academic qualification, motivation, and the potential future impact of each student.

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FundingStudents fully supported

To work in the region For the benefit of the region

All students from transition economies are awarded either a donor-sponsored fellowship covering tuition and living expenses or are offered an opportunity to earn their tuition and stipend as research or administrative assistants. Without debt for education, graduates can enter government service or academia in their home countries.

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Filling the GapsEducation designed for students’ needs

CERGE-EI’s Ph.D. is designed as a high-quality U.S.-style program, modified to meet the needs of its unique multinational student body, who typically have strong technical skills but little English or economics.

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Filling the GapsIntroducing new concepts

Encouraging new insights

CERGE-EI not only gives its students top-flight technical training in economics, but also encourages their economic intuition, teaching them to think and function in new ways. The program includes a preparatory semester for those lacking sufficient background in economics. The best students may spend a semester visiting an institution in the West while writing their dissertations.

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Filling the GapsTraining in English - the language of economics

CERGE-EI operates entirely in English. Unparalleled in doctoral economics, the CERGE-EI English program is designed to provide support to both students and faculty. English instructors focus on teaching writing for academics and research.

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Supplying the RegionFighting Brain Drain

CERGE-EI plays a key role in increasing regional capacity by retaining promising students in the region and by attracting to the faculty scholars from the region who have been trained in the West.

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Rate of Return to the Region:

Over 70% of CERGE-EI graduates remain in the region. This is in sharp contrast to the 5% of Central and Eastern Europeans who return to the region after receiving a Ph.D. in economics from leading American programs.

CERGE-EI

U.S.

70+ %

5 %

Supplying the Region

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Student Placements CERGE-EI graduates are filling high-ranking posts in international organizations, regional Central Banks, Ministries, universities, and the private sector.

In the near future, the fact that many top academic, government, and private sector economists will have common academic roots at CERGE-EI will promote cooperative and coordinated policy efforts throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Alpha Bank, Romania


American University in BulgariaBudapest University of EconomicsCASE Foundation, WarsawCitibankCzech National Bank

EU/PHARE Risk Capital FundIMFInternational Labor OrganizationNational Bank of KazakhstanOECDPhilip Morris CompaniesPriceWaterhouseCoopersWorld Bank

EBRD

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Faculty

CERGE-EI's strategy for building a first-rate faculty centers on hiring the best available young Ph.D.s from the U.S. The long absence of well-trained economists in the region means that senior faculty from the West are employed at CERGE-EI on a continuing but part-time basis until such time as permanent local faculty achieve tenured status.

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Permanent Faculty CERGE-EI has a stable young faculty recruited from the world’s leading Ph.D. programs. New faculty hires in recent years have consisted of both scholars from Central Europe and Russia who left the region for Ph.D. studies in the West and those with no prior attachment to the region who were attracted to CERGE-EI by its intellectual environment and research opportunities. These scholars are natives of countries as diverse as the U.S., Germany, Venezuela, and Korea.

•University of Chicago

•University of Minnesota

•Washington University, St. Louis

•University of Pennsylvania

•University of Pittsburgh

•SUNY, Buffalo

•Texas A&M


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Senior Faculty

Visiting senior professors teach and consult at CERGE-EI several times a month, acting as experienced mentors for junior faculty and students alike. The New York State Regents report cited them as being “of very, very high quality and providing leadership, mentoring and dissertation advising that puts this program on a par with very good U.S. Ph.D. programs.”


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Financial Management CERGE-EI’s financial resources are completely transparent, overseen by fundraising foundations in the United States and the Czech Republic.

Tax-Exempt and Audited In the USA, the CERGE-EI Foundation holds tax-exempt IRS 501(c)(3) status and is subject to rigorous U.S. audits.

Financial Oversight

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Senior Executives Donated funds are administered by a board which includes Alan Brown (CIO and Chair, State Street Global Advisors), Louis C. Camilleri (CEO, Philip Morris Companies), Douglas N. Daft (Chair and CEO, Coca-Cola Company), Miriam Klipper, (Asst. District Attorney, New York County), andJohn S. Reed (Chairman, retired, Citigroup).

at U.S. CorporationsProvide

Financial Leadership

Financial Oversight

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Czech Government To be financially secure, CERGE-EI requires an annual budget of $3,250,000.

Current sources are providing approximately $2,500,000 of this need, leaving a gap of $750,000 that must be closed if CERGE-EI is to fully realize its potential to serve the region

Partners Sharing the Vision

Private Sector

U.S. Government

Resources:

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Government of theThe Czech government has been remarkably generous in supporting CERGE-EI. All students are funded equally, including the vast majority who come from elsewhere in the post-communist world. This far-sighted support from the Czech government currently totals over $1,000,000 a year.

Czech Republic

Partners Sharing the VisionResources:

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Private Sector Donors

U.S. and European businesses, foundations, individuals, and international organizations are donating approximately $1,250,000 a year.

In addition, CERGE-EI earns $250,000 a year from overheads on various grants and services

•Citigroup

•Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

•Philip Morris Companies•Coca-Cola Company•State Street Bank•Siemens•Credit Suisse First Boston•Lehman Brothers•Bank Austria


•The World Bank

•Deutsche Bank

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Closing the Gap

It is critical that CERGE-EI meet its $750,000 unfunded operating needs in the near-term.

In the long run, endowment funds must be raised to achieve financal stability and enable long-term contracts with faculty.

Resources: Partners Sharing the Vision

Czech Government

CurrentDonors

EarnedIncome

UNFUNDEDNEEDS

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Key Needs Are:

10 Permanent Faculty ($30,000 per year or $500,000 endowment each) 5 Senior Visiting Faculty($30,000 per year or $500,000 endowment each) 50 Student Fellowships ($13,500 per year or $200,000 endowment each)

Any of these may be named as desired and may be directed to faculty in particular fields or students from specified countries.


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U.S. Government?In addition to seeking increased private support, CERGE-EI hopes the U.S. government will share in meeting the critical need for economists in the post communist world, as it did in establishing CERGE-EI during the Velvet Revolution.


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Shaping the Future

Addressing the CriticalShortage of Economists

CERGE-EI is a vital resource in addressing the severe shortage of well-trained economists in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, helping to ensure that the emerging economies of the region remain on the path of freedom.

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Preventing a New Iron Curtain

CERGE-EI is allowing the future economic leaders of the transition states to study together, helping to secure Russia and other eastern post-Soviet countries firmly as part of the West and preventing the emergence of a new iron curtain farther east than the one that fell in 1989.

Shaping the Future

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Encouraging Growth,

Reform & Stability

CERGE-EI promotes economic reform and stability in turbulent regions such as the Balkans, Caucusus and Central Asia through its well-trained graduates and its policy-oriented research. Such stability is in the long-run strategic interest of the United States.

Shaping the Future

•Balkans

•Caucusus

•Central Asia

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Developing New Markets

By enhancing economic growth in this vast region of over 400 million consumers, CERGE-EI and its graduates are aiding the development of markets with significant profit opportunities for American business.

Shaping the Future

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Shaping the FutureAcademic

Economic Cultural

As a model of American-style graduate education, CERGE-EI creates strong bonds between future Central and Eastern European economic leaders and the United States. Close links exist between CERGE-EI and the U.S. institutions from which its faculty have graduated, its visiting faculty is drawn, and where the best CERGE-EI students study on mobility semesters.

Forging Links With the U.S.

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CERGE-EI’s Success Recognized by

External recognition of CERGE-EI includes being designated twice by both USAID and the European Commission's PHARE-ACE Program as a “Center of Excellence in Economics Education.” CERGE-EI has been selected as as a coordinating institution for the World Bank-sponsored Global Development Network to transfer knowledge and research skills to other research institutes in the region.

Donor Agencies

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In recommending CERGE-EI’s accreditation with “the highest level of enthusiasm,” the New York State Regents’ site visit team found that CERGE-EI “fills an important and singular niche…. CERGE-EI’s special focus is to be a high quality, U.S.-style research and training center. As such it is singular in Eastern Europe. The program is demanding, innovative and responsive to the special needs of Central Europe.”

Accrediting Agencies

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Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University, 2001 Nobel Prize Winner:

“A first-rate Ph.D. Program. The fact that CERGE-EI has such high quality students with such diverse backgrounds makes it unique in the world. Its distinguished faculty from the U.S. and Europe puts it in a singular position.”

Scholars

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Kresimir Zigic, CERGE-EI graduate:

“I had studied graduate economics in Zagreb but CERGE pushed my thinking and analytical skills orders of magnitude further.”

Graduates

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John Reed,

Chairman, retired, Citigroup:

"CERGE-EI and its highly qualified faculty have played a critical role in the economic life of Eastern Europe by nurturing home-grown talent and retaining promising students within the region."

Business Leaders

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Vaclav Havel, President, Czech Republic:

“The peace and prosperity of the post-communist world requires investment in economic education and understanding. CERGE-EI is making a critical contribution to filling the void left by decades of hiding the truth.”

Policy Makers

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From the beginning, CERGE-EI has been a regional institution seeking to promote links among economists throughout the transition economies. The need for CERGE-EI has become increasingly apparent as the heady expectations of the early transition have not been met, with the introduction of the mechanisms and mindset of a market economy taking far longer than initially anticipated.

CERGE-EI

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By emphasizing academic excellence and the Western values of openness, academic integrity, tolerance, and non-discrimination, CERGE-EI is having a major positive impact on both the quality of economic thinking and the socio-political culture in the post-communist countries.

The future of these countries depends on the existence of government officials, university professors, and other leaders who fully understand the importance of free markets and the institutions of law and property rights that support them. These key leaders are being trained at CERGE-EI today.

CERGE-EI

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Academic Excellence

Western Academic Environment

Transparency

Non Discrimination

Tolerance

Academic Integrity

CERGE-EI

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1 A World-Class Education for A World in Transition The collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia left a region rich in spirit.

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