ECP students take part in Projects in Applied Economics for Talented Students
A team of ECP students attended a 12-week course at Charles University in the run-up to Christmas. The organisers of the Projects in Applied Economics for Talented Students selected six ECP IB students. The programme is under the auspices of the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute (CERGE-EI).
CERGE-EI PhD students led teams who analysed real research data and drew conclusions based on the data. Guest academics judged the final presentations. Our students all did brilliantly and some were amongst the prize winners. Year 5 student, Iveta Pudilová, came joint third overall. She said: “I found the CERGE-EI programme very interesting. We learnt how to apply the theories we learn as part of the IB Diploma Programme Economics course to practical research projects. This has deepened my understanding of how important the study of economics is when it comes to the problems faced by governments and individuals around the world.” Iveta’s team studied the effects of wages on the quality of politicians in the Czech Republic.
ECP’s Head of Economics, David Wyllyams, intends to follow up the students’ experience by taking a group to London in May. They will take part in a similar exercise in a leading institution in the City of London, the heart of the capital’s financial centre.
CERGE-EI is a partnership between the CERGE at Charles University and the EI of the Czech Academy of Sciences. It was founded in 1991 to educate economists from the former communist countries. It also conducts research in theoretical and policy-related economics.