European Trade Study Group

September 2016 (Volume 12 Number 1)

This year's conference in Helsinki was another great success, thanks to the local organisers and the great weather. We are extremely grateful to the local organisers, Pertti Haaparanta, Katariina Nilsson-Hakkala, Saara Tamminen, 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 Aalto University School of Business and the VATT Institute for Economic Research and the local sponsors for their support.

ETSG app!

The ETSG is moving along with technology and the ETSG2016 Conference is the first one with its own app. It allowed attendees to browse the programme, download papers and network with each other. The feedback was overall (very) positive and we plan to use the app also for next year's conference, with some changes to make its experience even better. The online agenda with links to papers will remain live at https://whova.com/event/agenda/?event=etsg_201609#day-1

ETSG and the WTO

The cooperation between the ETSG and the WTO continues. The 8th WTO Essay award has been awarded to Matthieu Bellon (Colombia University) with an honourable mention to Eunhee Lee (Yale University). Matthieu received the award and presented the paper in a plenary session at the ETSG2016 Conference in Helsinki. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the WTO in the coming years.

ETSG and Review of World Economics

The Review of World Economics (ROWE) has awarded the second annual prize for the best paper by young economists presented at ETSG conferences. Yuan Zi (Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva) was presented with the award during the ETSG Conference 2016 in Helsinki. We look forward to continuing this newly established collaboration with ROWE in the coming years.

Late wthdrawals from the conference

We continue to encounter problems with presenters not turning up at the conference, sometimes giving us little or no notice of the changes in their plans. We understand that there can be last-minute professional or personal emergencies that necessitate withdrawing from the conference. 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 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 late withdrawals in deciding upon which papers to accept.

CONFERENCE NEWS

ETSG 2017 Florence

Next year's conference will be held in Fiesole (Florence) at the European University Institute Helsinki from the afternoon of Thursday, 14 September to the evening of Saturday, 16 September. This conference will be organised by Bernard Hoekman. A Call for Papers will be issued early in 2017 and details will be posted on the ETSG website.

ETSG 2018 and beyond

We would like to thank all the people that expressed an interest in hosting a future ETSG conference. At the moment, we are in active negotiations for ETSG2018 in Warsaw. The Scientific Committee met in Helsinki 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 at your Institution. Our basic requirements are that the host institution be able to:

provide at least six rooms for parallel sessions
provide one large room for plenary sessions (capacity of >300)
each room must be equipped with an overhead projector, a PC, and a data projector
provide catering for coffee breaks and lunches
provide drinks and snacks for a reception on (at least) one evening
coordinate accommodations for participants (generally working with the local tourist board or convention agency)