EEA-ESEM congress successfully completed at Erasmus School of Economics

International congress with 1200 participants on Woudestein campus

Erasmus School of Economics hosted this international congress in celebration of its 110th anniversary. During the 5 congress days on Woudestein campus, approximately 1200 economists attended numerous sessions that shed new light on important applied problems such as green investments, online sales and advertising, cyber-risk, charitable donations, electric and hybrid cars, regional inequality, parental leave, gender equality, renewable energy, domestic violence,  education, healthcare, immigration, refugees, ethnic minorities, political campaign funding, intergenerational mobility, student debt, air pollution, crime and policing,  multinationals, public debt, pension fund financing, wealth taxes, inflation targets, financial market behaviour, trade mechanisms,  and innovation.

Other sessions focused on recent advances in economic theory, machine learning and econometrics, confronting fundamental issues in the modelling of economic problems, such as forecasting and policy evaluation, the aggregate and distributional impacts of inflation, and moral decision making. 

Substantial input by researchers of Erasmus School of Economics

Researchers from Erasmus School of Economics had a substantial input during the conference days, for example with the session “Inequality of Opportunity”, co-organised with the Royal Dutch Economic Association (KVS). It offered three flash talks presenting various perspectives on equality of opportunity, followed by a panel discussion about the future of research in this area.

In the first flash talk Niels Rietveld and Hans van Kippersluis discussed recent advances in the economics and econometrics of gene-environment interplay. This talk presented a forward-looking perspective on how environmental factors can amplify or cushion genetic influences on socio-economic inequalities. Next up was Bastian Ravesteijn, who discussed empirical evidence on the relationship between parental income and outcomes such as child income at the age of 35 in the Netherlands. And finally, Anne Gielen presented evidence of how social policy can contribute to equality of opportunity. Her talk showed that intergenerational effects from social policy reform affect up to three subsequent generations and impact a wide range of socio-economic outcomes. As such, these findings highlight the key role government programmes can play in shaping outcomes across multiple generations.

The conclusion of this five-day congress on Friday, 30 August 2024, marked the end of the school’s anniversary celebrations. Many thanks go out to the General Manager of the EEA, Gemma Prunner-Thomas, the members of the local organising committee Aart Gerritsen, Vadym Volosovych, Agnieszka Markiewicz, Anne Boring, Andreas Pick, Carlos Riumallo Herl, Michiel Gerritse, Wendun Wang, Annika Camehl and Chair Philip Hans Franses, the FAECTOR students Veerle, Jesse, Bente, Nora, Bogdan, Tilman, Constance, Kaissar, Eline and Kamakshi, and last but not least the support team members Marije Stofregen (Congress & Event Services) and Ronald de Groot.