Jan Svejnar

Professor Jan Svejnar received his B.S. in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. Since 1996 he has been the Executive Director of the William Davidson Institute and the Everett E. Berg Professor at the University of Michigan Business School. He also holds an appointment as Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Michigan. Concurrently, Professor Svejnar is the Chairman of the Executive and Supervisory Committee of the Center for Economics Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) of Charles University and of the Economics Institute (EI) of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Since 1995 he has served as co-director of the Transition Economics Programme at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London. Before 1996 he was a Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh and associate professor of economics and industrial and labor relations at Cornell University.

Professor Svejnar was one of the chief architects of the Czech Republic's economic reforms of the early 1990s and he continues to serve as an advisor to Czech President Vaclav Havel. Professor Svejnar also serves on the supervisory board of GE Capital in the Czech Republic. He is the co-founder of CERGE-EI in Prague, a graduate program that trains economists from the former Soviet bloc countries, the only American-style Ph.D. program and research center in economics in Central and Eastern Europe. Professor Svejnar has conducted research and given policy advice in over twenty countries worldwide and has been awarded numerous research and other grants from organizations including the National Science Foundation, The World Bank and the National Council for East European and Eurasian Research.

Professor Svejnar's research in economics and business covers a range of issues, including the effect of government policy on firms' performance and the behavior of multinational corporations, joint ventures and local firms in transition and emerging market economies. Examples of his authored and co-authored journal publications are "Enterprise Break-ups and Performance During the Transition from Plan to Market," Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming, "Unemployment and the Social Safety Net During Transitions to a Market Economy: Evidence From the Czech and Slovak Republics," American Economic Review (1998); "Enterprises and Workers in the Transition: Econometric Evidence," American Economic Review (1996); "Behavior of Participatory Firms in Yugoslavia: Lessons for Transforming Economics," Review of Economics and Statistics (1994); "Wage Determination in Labor-Managed Firms under Market-Oriented Reforms: Estimates of Static and Dynamic Models," Journal of Comparative Economics, (1993); "Structural Adjustment Policies and Productive Efficiency of Socialist Enterprises," European Economic Review, (1992); "Microeconomic Issues in the Transition to Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives (1991); "Optimal Membership Employment and Income Distribution in Unionized and Labor Manager Firms," Journal of Labor Economics (1990); "Market Imperfection, Labor-Management and Earnings Differentials in a Developing Economy: Theory and Econometric Evidence from Yugoslavia," Quarterly Journal of Economics, (1988); "Bargaining Power, Fear of Disagreement and Wage Settlements: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Industry," Econometrica (1986); and "The Economics of Joint Ventures in Less Developed Countries," Quarterly Journal of Economics (1984). He has also written and edited several books and monographs, including The Czech Republic and Economic Transition in Eastern Europe, Academic Press, 1995. Prof. Svejnar has also contributed a number of chapters to edited books.