September 2008 (Volume 7 Number 1)
UCL and LICOS Prize
The competition for the third winner of the UCL and LICOS prize was intense and the results were announced at ETSG 2008 in Warsaw. In the end, two papers clearly stood out from the rest and the selection committee could not choose between them. Thus, two papers were each awarded a prize of 1000€, donated by the Université Catholique the Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL) and the research center LICOS, of the Catholic University of Leuven. The winners were Fabrice Defever and Farid Toubal for their paper “Productivity and the sourcing modes of multinational firms” and Elena Besidina for her paper “Exporting and productivity under endogenous trade policy: Theory and evidence from Ukraine”. All papers focusing on issues regarding Trade Policy and EU studies (submitted by the deadline) were considered for the prize. Our congratulations to Elena, Fabrice, and Farid on their success.
WTO Prize
The cooperation between the ETSG and the WTO has by now been consolidated with representatives of the WTO presenting the World Trade Report (as well as academic papers). As of next year, the WTO will follow the lead of UCL and LICOS and will also award a prize of 1000€. Further details for eligibility will be provided together with the call for papers for the ETSG Conference of 2009.
Late withdrawals from the conference
We continue to encounter problems with presenters not turning up at the conference, sometimes giving us a little or no notice of the changes in their plans. We understand that there can be unanticipated professional or personal emergencies that necessitate withdrawing from the conference at the last minute. However, sometimes registered participants simply do not turn up or withdraw without explanation very close to the conference. In such cases, we are unable to reschedule the programme, denying participants on the waiting list of the opportunity to present their work. Rest assured that we are keeping track of such occurrences! As competition for presentation slots is becoming increasingly intense, in future we may have to take into account these “no shows” in deciding upon which papers to accept.
CONFERENCE NEWS
ETSG 2008 Warsaw
This year's conference in Warsaw was another great success. We are extremely grateful to the local organisers, Elżbieta Czarny, Jan Jakub Michałek and all their colleagues for their efforts in making the conference run so smoothly. The conference team did a superb job and we are grateful to both Warsaw University and the Warsaw School of Economics and to the local sponsors for their support.
ETSG 2009 Rome
Next year's conference will be held in Rome from the afternoon of Thursday, 10 September to the evening of Saturday, 12 September. This conference will be organised by the University of Tor Vergata. A Call for Papers will be made early in 2009 and details will be posted on the ETSG website.
ETSG 2010 and beyond
We would like to thank all the people that expressed an interest in hosting a future ETSG conference. At the moment, we have confirmed that Lausanne and Copenhagen will host the ETSG conferences in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The Scientific Committee met in Warsaw to discuss future locations and plans will be announced as soon as they will be finalized. In case you are interested, we invite you to contact us to discuss the possibility of holding the conference. Our basic requirements are that the host institution be able to:
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provide at least six rooms for parallel sessions
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provide one large room for plenary sessions (capacity of >300)
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each room must be equipped with an overhead projector, a PC, and a data projector
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provide catering for coffee breaks and lunches
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provide drinks and snacks for a reception on (at least) one evening
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coordinate accommodations for participants (generally working with the local tourist board or convention agency)
If you are interested in hosting the conference please contact Ian Wooton in the first instance.
ETSG 2008 = 10 Conferences of the ETSG: Happy Birthday!!
This year's conference in Warsaw was the tenth conference of the ETSG. Everything started in Rotterdam in 1999 and we have come a long way from the first edition. Davide Castellani and Luca De Benedictis provided an interesting overview of the evolution of the ETSG Conferences during a special presentation in Warsaw. Their presentation is available online and it provides a descriptive and econometric (yes, econometric!) analysis of the success of ETSG Conferences. Thanks to all of the participants over the years for making this possible!