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Practitioners, Researchers and Academics Attend CREI Barcelona Macroeconomics Summer School
The ninth edition of the Barcelona Macroeconomics Summer School was held from June 18 - 29, 2007 at the Ciutadella campus at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The two-week summer school is organized annually by the Center for Research in International Economics (CREI), one of the BSE's founding research institutions, and features seven courses designed for practitioners, researchers and graduate students taught by internationally renowned economics professors.
This year's schedule included courses in Monetary Policy and Labor Market Imperfections, Fiscal Policy in General Equilibrium Models of the Business Cycle, Sovereign Debt, Cities and Economic Geography, DSGE Models and Data, and two different courses in Economic Growth and Development.
BSE Affiliated Professor and CREI Director Jordi Galí in the classroom
Courses are taught by leading economists, including BSE Affiliated Professors Jordi Galí, Albert Marcet, Jaume Ventura, Hans-Joachim Voth, Diego Puga, Antonio Ciccone, and Fabio Canova, and Columbia Professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin, who also teaches in the BSE Msc in Economics. "The Summer School offers a great combination of cutting-edge economic theory and macroeconomics case studies, leading to a hight level of intellectual stimulation", says Marko Mrsnik, one of this year's participants who works as an economist for the European Commission.
Peter Symons, who works in the Debt and Reserves Management Team at the HM Treasury and attended a course in Sovereign Debt, says of his experience "As an economist working in a central policy advising role in the British Treasury, I found the summer school course I attended to be a valuable opportunity to update my knowledge of the theoretical literature and to apply the policy implications of that literature to my current work". He adds, "The course was well taught and was particularly worthwhile in drawing together the theoretical and policy parts of the literature".
BSE Affiliated Professor Antonio Ciccone teaches "Economic Growth and Development"
Students attend one of the 7 courses offered
The majority of the 117 participants of this year's summer school are employed by banks, universities and research institutions, including the European Commission, The World Bank, European Central Bank, IBMEC Sao Paulo Business School, and Oxford University. CREI Director and BSE Affiliated Professor Jordi Galí says, "The Barcelona Macroeconomics Summer School owes part of its success to the diversity of the students, both academically and professionally. Participants hailed from 26 countries, and one of the few commonalities was their desire to know what's cooking at the frontiers of macroeconomic research".
Likewise, Marko Mrsnik claims that the highlight of his experience was "interaction with participants from policy-making institutions and academia from around the world- it makes the courses an intensive learning experience, spiced up by a vibrant atmosphere of summertime Barcelona." When not in class or attending one of the school's activities, participants were able to explore the city, sample restaurants, visit museums, and, of course, spend time on the beach, located just 5 minutes walking from the Ciutadella Campus at the UPF.
The CREI Barcelona Macroeconomics Summer School is complemented by the Barcelona School of Economics' Cluster and Banking Summer Schools, organized by the BSE, which run concurrently from June 25- July 6.
Columbia Professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin lectures in the course "Economic Growth and Development I"