Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES)

 

Objectives and Program of Work

The Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES) is a non-governmental organization founded by a group of economists led by two mid-career, top-ranked US university Ph.D. graduates. Its mission is to develop current economic thinking founded on world-class standards in research and education in contribution to enhanced decision-making in South East Europe (SEE) and a better understanding of modern economies by its public.

CEVES is working to build institutional capacity, particularly through improved data and analytical skills, but also to build knowledge. It aims to identify, analyze, and interpret Serbian economic issues both for local policymakers and for the mainstream economics research community. It also endeavors to awaken concerted capacity-raising efforts by the international economic research community for SEE as a region, similar to those that have laid the foundations for the world-class economic research centers in Central and East Europe.

SEE today finds itself at the doors of the European Union and economic reform within the region and within Serbia in particular requires a more finely tuned understanding of the emerging economic problems and trends. While various think tanks and consulting companies have established themselves in a bid to meet the intense demand for economic analysis since the democratic change at the begining of the decade, they do so without the advantage of an adequate statistical or knowledge base gained through a legacy of rigorous economic research. No institution exists in Serbia charged with close monitoring of economic developments, constant evaluations of economic policy, and systematic research in essential policy areas.^[1]

Coherent and professional economics, highly incorporated into the international research community and capable of providing well-grounded answers to basic questions is required if Serbia, as well as other SEE economies, are to see successful outcomes to the difficult tasks of reform. This incorporation can be attained relatively quickly as the regional profession enjoys a tradition of market analysis and harbors high quality but scattered research capacity.

CEVES believes its goals can best be achieved through integration with existing institutions. Jointly with the Economics Faculty of the University of Belgrade it set up the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN). FREN supports excellence in economics in general. A key focus is the funding of a program designed to build on, leverage, and develop existing research capacities through research projects identified as of priority importance to informing policy making. From October 2005, FREN is issuing Quarterly Monitor, to report macroeconomic, financial and corporate trends and analyze economic policy in Serbia. Subsequently, a review of the stylized facts of Serbia's macroeconomic adjustment process over the past five years, with in-depth analyses and cross-validations of data, is issued in 2005. Among the research projects done until now are a comprehensive establishment survey, and a regional mapping of Serbia's labor market.

Core research covers five program areas considered of critical importance to the economic reform in Serbia:

Program I Macroeconomic and financial system and policy design
- Analyzing, evaluating and developing macroeconomic policies to create and sustain macroeconomic stability in Serbia.
- Monitoring of the work done by state regulatory bodies with the special attention to the necessity of their independence, as well as defining goals that need to be fulfilled for the purpose of reaching EU standards.

Program II Economic development
- Transforming Serbia into a knowledge-based economy. Creating policies for the purpose of building infrastructure necessary for the development of knowledge-based economy and human capital.
- Reaching world standards in the economics science in Serbia, the reform of higher education at University of Belgrade through the foundation of FREN and the support to its work, and through close collaboration with SECCF.
- Business atmosphere: outreach to media, parliament, interest groups, political parties, and various associations of business entities for the purpose of establishing much needed infrastructure and raising the level of public services needed for healthy growth of the private sector, which in turn is a major requirement for sustainable economic growth of Serbia.
- Special policies for different fields of economy (energy, e.g. The privatization of NIS, health, agriculture etc.)

Program III The reduction of poverty, income distribution and employment (with the support of FREN)
- Analyzing the current state and defining strategies and policies, which are necessary for the reduction of poverty, the fair distribution of national income, and the decrease in unemployment.

Program IV Corporate governance and legal framework
- Analyzing the enforcement of rules and regulations in the field of ownership rights for the purpose not only of better understanding but also of giving recommendations to policy-makers and companies.

Program V The reform of public sector and administration (in preparation)
- CEVES plans to commit itself to the analysis of the business operations of municipal public utilities, which are currently far from transparent and are most likely the source of inefficiency and needless expenditures.

To foster excellence at large, several research and mentoring assistance grants are awarded on a competitive basis for projects judged for their international publication potential. Moreover, CEVES is working closely with the SouthEuropean Center for Contemporary Finance (SECCF) and Economics Faculty of Belgrade University (EF) to develop a world-class graduate program in finance and economics at master's, Ph.D. and executive education levels.

Finally, CEVES believes that lasting integration with the international economics mainstream can only be achieved within a broader regional network. From early 2006 CEVES start developing such a network, aiming to link, foster and fund excellence in economics at the regional level together with the coordination of research.

 

CEVES Projects

 

CEVES Founders

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the support of USAID (through partnerships with Bearing Point, EWMI, PFS and IBM), the Fund for an Open Society-Serbia, the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Swedish Government and the Economics Faculty of Belgrade University.

^[1] Institutions previously in charge of informing policy have had to commercialize over the 1990s. The generation of statistical data has suffered greatly, and while the Statistics Bureau of Serbia is endeavoring to reform, it is not expected to become capable of producing reliable and timely data within the medium term. Where academic economics is concerned, there is no clear sense of a generally accepted economic methodology and no incentives for systematic and rigorous research, either applied or theoretical.