Professor Kahanec co-organized IZA/NBS/CELSI Conference on European Labor Markets and the Euro Area during the Great Recession

Martin Kahanec (Public Policy) co-organized with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI) and National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) an international scientific conference on „European Labor Markets and the Euro Area during the Great Recession: Adjustment, Transmission, Interactions“ on October 20-21, 2014 in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Keynote speeches were given by Klaus F. Zimmermann, director of IZA and professor at Bonn University, and Jordi Galí, director of CREI and professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

During the conference, a new book „Labor Migration, EU Enlargement, and the Great Recession“ edited by Martin Kahanec and Klaus F. Zimmermann forthcoming with Springer Publishing was launched. The publication addresses some of the key topics in contemporary debate about migration in an enlarged EU, focusing on the role of the free movement of workers in attenuating asymmetric economic shocks across EU labor markets during the Great Recession.

Klaus F. Zimmerman and Alessio Brown presented a unique project „World of Labor“ with the main mission  to provide decision-makers and stakeholders with relevant information about key questions about the functioning of labor markets and policy measures based on hard empirical evidence and to help them in formulating good policies and best practices.

Martin Kahanec, scientific co-organizer of the conference, commented: “This conference provided a significant impetus to our understanding of the links between macroeconomic policies in the EU and labor market adjustment. Macroeconomic policies affect labor markets in Europe; at the same time, labor market adjustment is of key importance not only for daily operations of central banks but also for the capacity of European economies to adjust to economic shocks, and for the resilience of the Euro Area during economic turbulences.”

Conference papers are available online: http://www.iza.org/conference_files/EuroLaborMarkets_2014/viewProgram?conf_id=2646.