September 2018 (Volume 13 Number 1)
Two years have passed since the last newsletter, simply because of Co-Directors have been too busy with their academic duties! Despite the delay, we are happy to report the success of the ETSG2017 conference in Florence: participants enjoyed attending sessions in the centre of historic Florence as well as in Fiesole. Thanks to Giorgia Giovannetti and Bernard Hoekman for making it all possible!
This year's conference in Warsaw was another great success, thanks to the local organisers and the good weather (the latter of which was definitely better than the last time we were in town in 2008). We are extremely grateful to the local organisers (Elżbieta Czarny, Andżelika Kuźnar, Eliza Przeździecka, Paweł Folfas, 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 Warsaw School of Economics and PKO Bank Polski for their support.
ETSG2018 marked the 20th edition of our annual conference. We could not let this symbolic milestone go uncelebrated. The Scientific Committee recognised the contribution of Joe Francois and Ian Wooton in creating the ETSG in 1999 and making it grow from a small crowd to the largest trade conference in the world. The local organisers also surprised us with a very nice (and yummy) cake to celebrate the event.
ETSG and the WTO
The cooperation between the ETSG and the WTO continues.
- The 9th WTO Essay award was awarded at ETSG2017 in Florence to Meredith Startz (Princeton University) with honourable mentions to Jingting Fan (Pennsylvania State University) and Zheli He (Columbia University).
- The 10th WTO Essay was awarded in Warsaw to Alonso de Gortari (Harvard University) with an honourable mention for Yuan Mei (University of Chicago).
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) awards an annual prize for the best paper by a young economist presented at the ETSG conference. Guzmán Ourens received the award in Florence while Tommaso Sonno received it in Warsaw. 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, it can be the case that registered participants simply do not turn up or withdraw without explanation, often 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 2019 Bern
Next year's conference will be held in Bern (Switzerland) at the World Trade Institute from the afternoon of Thursday, 12 September to the evening of Saturday, 14 September. This conference will be organised by Joe Francois (Co-Director of the ETSG). A Call for Papers will be issued early in 2019 and details will be posted on the ETSG website.
ETSG 2020 and beyond
We would like to thank all the people who have expressed an interest in hosting a future ETSG conference. At the moment, we are in active negotiations for ETSG2020 in Ghent (Belgium). 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 at your Institution. Our basic requirements are that the host institution be able to:
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provide at least seven 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.