ZEW Hosts Largest European Conference for Young Economists

On Thursday April 26, 2012, the three-day meeting of about 200 young economists started at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. They take part in the "Spring Meeting of Young Economists" (SMYE). The conference is organised on an annual basis "by young economists for young economists" and takes place in different European countries.

Previous conference venues include Istanbul, Luxembourg and Dutch city Groningen. This year, ZEW succeeded in bringing the 17th SMYE conference to Mannheim. ZEW President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Franz warmly welcomedthe participants at ZEW at the opening of the conference and said: "I am especially looking forward toseeing the great variety of interesting results in the various fields of economic research that will be presented during the next three days."

The Spring Meeting of Young Economists is the largest European conference for young researchers from the field of economics. About 200 participants were chosen out of 650 applications for this year’s conference. Young economists organise the meeting which covers the whole spectrum of economic topics.

SMYE provides a platform with a comparably small number of participants for the development of ideas and for the exchange between young PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and assistant professors. During the three conference days, they will present their latest research results."I would like to thank ZEW for having made this possible again this year,"said Dr. Richard Jong-A-Pin, chairman of SMYE. "To those who may participate after a fierce competition on the SMYE, I wish you an interesting and scientifically rewarding conference."

 Keynote speakers of this year’s meeting are Prof. Dr. Armin Falk (University of Bonn), Ayhan Köse, Ph.D. (International Monetary Fund) and Mary Amiti, Ph.D. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York). On Thursday, Armin Falk will talk about "Heterogeneity - Determinants of Risk Attitudes", on the second conference day, Ayhan Köse will present a lecture on "Regionalization vs. Globalization", and on Saturday, Mary Amiti will present her results regarding "Trade Finance and the Great Trade Collapse". The conference will close with the presentation of the "Best Paper Award", which includes the presentation of a certificate and 500 euros prize money of.

Please follow the link for more pictures of the 17th Spring Meeting of Young Economists (SMYE)

For further information please contact

Dr. Atilim Seymen, Phone +49 621/1235-349, E-mail seymen@zew.de

Dr. Jan Hogrefe, Phone +49 621/1235-348, E-mail hogrefe@zew.de