Following the success of the inaugural seminar (thanks to the 55 participants!), we would like to invite you to the second Online Research Seminar of the Baltic Economic Association. The seminar series is scheduled to take place once a month with the purpose of developing personal contacts and promoting joint scholarly research and intellectual exchange between economists of the Baltic States.

We are pleased to welcome Jānis Skrastiņš (Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School) for this second session. Jānis’ research focuses on labor economics, financial intermediation, and organizational economics. His current work on labor economics analyzes the incentive effects of unemployment insurance, worker mobility, and risk sharing between firms and employees. His work also provides empirical insights on the trade-offs of organizational design and their broader implications for the real economy. His current research explores organizational hierarchy and delegation of decision-making, and how lenders adapt their organizational design to mitigate credit market imperfections. He also investigates the role of courts in the transmission of shocks in the supply chains. His work has received several best paper awards and has been published in such outlets as Journal of Political Economy. Jānis received his PhD in finance from London Business School, MSc in corporate finance from University of Amsterdam, and BSc in business economics from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.

Speaker: Jānis Skrastiņš (Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School)

Title: Unemployment Insurance as a Subsidy to Risky Firms

Co-authors: Bernardus van Doornik (Banco Central do Brasil), Dimas Fazio (London Business School), and David Schoenherr (Princeton)

Date: Thursday, June 18

Time: 16:00 Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn 

To register and obtain the Zoom dial-in details, send an email to balticeconasso@gmail.com

Facilitator: Nicolas Gavoille (SSE Riga)

Abstract: We document that a more generous unemployment insurance (UI) system shifts labor supply from safer to riskier firms and reduces compensating wage differentials risky firms need to pay. Consequently, a more generous UI system increases risky firms’ value and fosters entrepreneurship by reducing new firms’ labor costs. Exploiting a UI reform in Brazil that affects only part of the workforce allows us to compare labor supply for workers with different degrees of UI protection within the same firm, sharpening identification of the results. Altogether, our results suggest that UI provides a transfer system from safe to risky firms.

We would like to invite you to the Inaugural Online Research Seminar of the Baltic Economics Association. The seminar series is scheduled to take place once a month with the purpose of developing personal contacts and promoting joint scholarly research and intellectual exchange between economists of the Baltic States.

We are delighted that Alminas Žaldokas (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), the founding member of the Baltic Economic Association, has kindly agreed to serve as the speaker of the inaugural seminar. Ever since co-founding the Lithuanian Economics Network in 2012, Alminas had a vision of expanding the network to the Baltic region, which eventually took place in 2018. Alminas’ paper, co-authored with a fellow from Latvia, Jānis Bērziņš (BI Norwegian Business School), represents the very idea of the Baltic cooperation.

The seminar will take place on ZOOM. If you wish to attend, simply send an email to balticeconasso@gmail.com.

Speaker: Alminas Žaldokas (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Title: Conflicts in Private Family Firms

Co-author: Jānis Bērziņš (BI Norwegian Business School)

 

Date: 22 May 2020

Time: 10:30 AM Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn

Facilitator: Linas Tarasonis (Vilnius University)

Abstract: We use Norwegian household-level data and full structures of family relationships to understand how succession decisions are made when the family has multiple potential heirs. We argue that the decision on ownership distribution in family firms is related to the potential of future family conflicts, and that such within-family dynamics have implications for firm investment and growth. We identify the causal effect by looking at whether the founder has experienced a divorce or a separation in the distant past. We instrument founder’s divorce with the frequency of divorces in the extended family relationships outside of the nuclear family, which we argue makes founder’s divorce more socially acceptable. Since some family conflicts are inevitable and family heirs might not be able to trade their shares, founders should consider adjusting their inheritance to minimize the possibility of heir feuds and adverse effects on firm growth.

 

TalTech course Forecasting with DSGE Models

The course will be held at TalTech over three full days from Wednesday 10 to Friday 12 June 2020. The class starts at 10:00 and ends at 16:00.

The objective of the course is to teach student how to:

• Estimate DSGE model: classical and Bayesian estimation
• Foreast with DSGE models: mean, median, density forecast
• Evaluate the accuracy of forecasts: ex-post forecasting competitions

The course, which is aimed at doctoral students and researchers, will use Matlab and Dynare. Basic knowledge of the three equation New Keynesian model and basic knowledge of  Matlab are appreciated.

Main Instructor: Michal Rubaszek (Warsaw School of Economics)

The course is organized as follows:

1. Estimating DSGE models
2. Forecasting with DSGE model
3. Evaluation of forecasts

Registration

For more information, visit http://www.taltech.ee/ecee 

Please contact Ms Aneli Hallap (ecee(at)taltech.ee) for registration or for any additional information.