Andreas Peichl speaks at seminar of the Armenian Economic Association

The next monthly seminar of the Armenian Economic Association will take place on December 18^th, from 6 to 7 pm, Yerevan time, and 3-4 pm CET. The seminar features Professor Andreas Peichl who will present his research on "Measuring Unfair Inequality: Reconciling Equality of Opportunity and Freedom from Poverty." 

For registration, use the following link:

 

http://aea.am/aea-monthly-seminars-andreas-peichl/

 

A Zoom link will be sent to the registered participants shortly before the seminar. 

 

Andreas is a Professor of Economics at the University of Munich and the Director of the ifo Center for Business Cycle Analysis and Surveys. His current research interests include (empirical) public economics, labor economics and welfare economics with particular reference to optimal taxation, tax reforms and their empirical evaluation, tax benefit microsimulation and the analysis of income distributions. His research has been published in various top academic journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, among others. Andreas has also been involved in various research projects conducted on behalf of national ministries, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Central Bank and the OECD. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cologne in 2008.

Armenia and its Turkic neighbors

Armenia is much smaller than its Turkic neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan.  It has a population of 2.9 million compared to Turkey's 82.3 million and Azerbaijan's 9.9 million. In 2019, Armenia's GDP was about $14 billion compared to Turkey's $754 billion and Azerbaijan's $48 billion.

But Armenia is far more democratic with greater freedom of the press. Azerbaijan is near the bottom of the 2020 world ranking of press freedom (168), with NATO member Turkey slightly above it (154); North Korea=180. In contrast, Armenia is ranked at 61; USA=45. Also Erdogan of Turkey has been president since 2003. And Azerbaijan's Aliyev has been the president since 2003, a position he inherited from his father who ruled from 1993 through 2003. Being less autocratic, Armenia's prime minister was elected to office in 2018.

Even without bringing up past exterminations of Armenians, why would anyone expect Armenians to be safe and live under Turkic rule? 

Turkey and Israel

Turkey + Germany in 1915: 1.5 million Armenians dead.

Turkey + Israel in 2020: in progress.

The cluster bombs, missiles, and drones killing Armenians today have the markings made in Israel and Turkey. Turkey instigated and oversees these killings, including the deployment of Syrian jihadists. And Israel armed and continues to re-arm Azerbaijan with the latest weapons it has developed. While they may not see eye to eye on many things, Turkey and Israel are partners in the killing fields of Karabakh. The killing of Armenians fills Erdogan's heart with joy, regardless of the economic costs to Turkey. Whereas Netanyahu runs to the bank with billions of dollars in military sales, and the gains are viewed to outweigh the cost (i.e. grief over killing Armenians) of Israel's actions. Erdogan and Netanyahu make the perfect couple. But Israel is different from Turkey, and the cry for "Never Again" should have resonated much louder as noted by Yossi Melman writing for Haaretz,

Women in Economics Workshop

The Armenian Economic Association Second Women in Economics Workshop will be held online on November 5, 2020.

Research by women in all areas of economics and finance, both work in progress and completed works, are welcome. 

Submissions: Submit abstracts of less than 500 words by October 15th at https://forms.gle/E2gLJ1Pse3gL88R4A; decisions by October 20th. Submissions are free.

Details of 2019 Workshop available at http://aea.am/women-in-economics-workshop/

Workshop on Asset Management and Pension Economics

The Armenian Economic Association, in collaboration with C-Quadrat Ampega Armenia, invites students and recent graduates to submit their works on Asset Management and Pension Economics to be considered for the virtual workshop to be held on August 28, 2020.

The best paper will be awarded the prestigious C-Quadrat Award that comes with a prize of 500 Euros.

Eligibility criteria

The workshop and the award are open to anyone (of any nationality, residency, and socio-demographic characteristics) who:

• is a student or a recent graduate (no earlier than April 2019)

• has conducted research on the topics of asset management and pension economics (e.g., pension funds, pension reforms, economics of ageing, principal-agent issues, risk management, investment strategies, laws and regulations, asset quality, maturity management, stress tests)

• is available for the virtual workshop in English on August 28, 2020, 11:00-17:00 (Armenian time)

Submit at: http://aea.am/pension-workshop2020/

Submission Deadline: August 12, 2020

Best paper awards: Armenian Economic Association 2020 Meetings

The Armenian Economic Association 2020 Annual Meetings concluded June 27th with the presentation of awards for best papers.

The winner of the IMF Best Paper award is a team of economists at the Central Bank of Armenia  (Ani Asoyan, Vahagn Davtyan, Haykaz Igityan, Hasmik Kartashyan, and Hovhannes Manukyan). Their paper is entitled “Modeling the Effects of Health Shock on Economy: Standard NK DSGE Framework.”

The winner of the Armen Alchian Award, AEA’s highest award, is Vladimir Asriyan of the Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional, Barcelona GSE and CEPR, co-authored with Luc Laeven and Alberto Martin.  The paper is entitled “Collateral Booms and Information Depletion.”

And last, the winner of Grigor Artsruni Award, granted to young economists, typically students, is Roberto Sarkisian, a PhD student at the Toulouse School of Economics, France. His paper is entitled “Screening Teams of Moral and Altruistic Agents.”

Congratulations to these economists.

Expanded 2018 Household Survey released

The full 2018 Integrated Living Conditions Survey was recently released. An earlier version was released by Armstat that contained select variables. The new release, aka World Bank version, contains the full information on household members and all available variables. There are 5,184 households in the survey.

2018 Armenian Household and Labor Force Surveys Released

Armstat released the 2018 Household Integrated Living Conditions Survey as well as the 2018 Labor Force Survey. 

Call for Papers: Armenian Economic Association 2020 Annual Meetings

The Armenian Economic Association 2020 annual meetings will he held in Yerevan on June 25-27, 2020.

Keynote Speaker: Finn E. Kydland, winner of 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Papers in all areas of economics, finance, and business/marketing, both theoretical and applied, are welcome. Topics may include, but not limited to, growth and development issues in Armenia and the South-Caucasus, integration with the Eurasian Union and the EU, trade patterns, trends in labor markets and migration, tax policy, income inequality, regulatory reforms, health, environment, or other topics on current advances in economics and finance.

Submissions: Submit abstracts of less than 500 words here by May 10th ; decisions by May 15th. Submissions are free with no cost to present and participate.

Best Paper Awards: Submission of completed papers in advance is required to be considered for International Monetary Fund best paper award as well as AEA's Armen Alchian and Grigor Artzruni (students) awards, and C-Quadrat award for best student paper in pension economics and portfolio management (200,000 Drams).

For further updates, visit www.aea.am