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Professor Jan Švejnar Was Awarded a State Decoration for His Work
30 October, 2024
On the 106th anniversary of the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state, Professor Jan Švejnar received the Medal of Merit in the Field of Science from the President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel.
Professor Švejnar commented on his award: "It is a great honour for me to have been able to be in Vladislav Hall yesterday and, together with other guests, to receive the state decoration from President Petr Pavel. I would like to take this opportunity to thank MP Miloš Nový, who nominated me for the award. I share this award for merit in the field of science with all my colleagues from CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences."
"My sincere congratulations to Jan Švejnar on the Medal of Merit. He deserves the award from the President of the Republic not only for his scientific contribution, but also for his long-standing cultivation of the Czech academic environment," said the Director of CERGE-EI, Marek Kapička.
Jan Švejnar earned a bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University in 1974. He completed his postgraduate studies at Princeton University, where he received an M.A. in economics in 1976 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1979. In the early 1990s, he co-founded CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education at Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where he still serves as Chairman of the Executive and Supervisory Committee. From 1996 to 2011, he was the Everett E. Berg Chair of Business Administration and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. From 1996 to 2004, he was Executive Director of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Business School. From 1994 to 2002, he served as an economic advisor to the first post-revolutionary Czech president, Václav Havel. From August 1992 to June 1999 he headed the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. From 2005 to 2011, he was Director of the Center for International Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Since 2012, he has been Professor of International and Public Affairs and Director of the Center for Global Economic Governance at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Jan Švejnar's academic work focuses on the fields of developing country economics, labour and transition strategies. He is the author of articles, books and studies in academic journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, Economica, Economics of Transition, European Business Forum, European Economic Review, Journal of Comparative Economics and others. In 2009, he founded and still leads the IDEA think tank project at the Economics Institute of the CAS. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic.
