Advertise on podcast: Talking Economics

In a new episode of CERGE-EI’s Talking Economics podcast, Assistant Professor Achim Ahrens discusses what economic research tells us about migration, refugees and labour market integration. Speaking with host Katarina Stehlíková, Ahrens explains that the labour market effects of migration are far more complex than public debate often suggests. “There is no empirical consensus,” he says, noting that the impact depends on the setting, the type of workers arriving and whether the change is sudden or gradual. 🌐 https://cerge-ei.cz/ 📘 https://instagram.com/cergeei/ 📸 https://facebook.com/cergeei/ 🐦 https://x.com/CERGE_EI/ 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/cerge-ei.bsky.social/

The new episode of Talking Economics brings a timely discussion with Kamil Kovář, Director at Moody’s Analytics and our alumnus, on how today’s overlapping shocks are reshaping the global economy. Kamil explores how wars, energy disruptions, rearmament, trade fragmentation, and political unpredictability are changing the way economists think about growth, inflation, and risk. “It’s just, as you said, one shock after another, and it just doesn’t stop,” Kamil says. In this environment, he argues, economists can no longer rely on a single central outlook: “It’s more and more important to talk in terms of scenarios and not talk in terms of the baseline outlook only.” The episode examines what has changed most fundamentally in the global economy, what the most likely path forward may be, and which alternative scenarios matter most. Kamil also reflects on how recent crises have exposed the limits of traditional models, noting that “the distribution has widened so much” that one or two scenarios are no longer enough to capture the risks economies face. This episode offers a guide to understanding the macroeconomic landscape in a period marked by constant disruption. https://cerge-ei.cz/ https://instagram.com/cergeei/ https://facebook.com/cergeei/ https://x.com/CERGE_EI/ https://bsky.app/profile/cerge-ei.bsky.social/

Our job market candidate Margarita Pavlova is the latest guest in the Talking Economics: Emerging Scholars podcast series, which highlights the research and career journeys of CERGE-EI PhD in Economics candidates and recent graduates. Margarita is an applied microeconomist specializing in labor and gender economics. Her research explores how macroeconomic conditions, labor market policies, and institutions shape labor market outcomes—especially the long-term effects of economic shocks, wage setting, and labor market inequality. In her job market paper, Margarita studies how business-cycle conditions at the time of labor market entry shape early-career trajectories and how these effects evolve over time. 00:00 Introduction 01:15 Why economic research 04:35 Challenges during Covid 07:00 Visiting Yale 08:34 Graduates in a cycle, graduating in a recession 14:07 Women in the labor market 19:29 Competition and the gender pay gap https://cerge-ei.cz/ https://instagram.com/cergeei/ https://facebook.com/cergeei/ https://x.com/CERGE_EI/ https://bsky.app/profile/cerge-ei.bsky.social/

The Talking Economics: Emerging Scholars podcast series highlights the research and career journeys of CERGE-EI PhD in Economics candidates and recent graduates. In this episode, we speak with Sona Badalyan, one of our current job market candidates. Sona is an applied microeconomist with interests in labor, public, and personnel economics. Her job market paper examines internal labor markets, exploring how firm organization, labor market institutions, and frictions shape outcomes for workers and firms in an aging economy. 00:00 Introduction 01:20 Path to a PhD decision 05:10 Challenges and mobility stays 08:06 Motivation for a dissertation topic 08:53 Intra-firm spillovers of raised retirement age 15:30 Old-age employment and organizational structures 17:50 Peer Effects in old-age employment https://cerge-ei.cz/ https://instagram.com/cergeei/ https://facebook.com/cergeei/ https://x.com/CERGE_EI/ https://bsky.app/profile/cerge-ei.bsky.social

Why does discrimination persist even when it’s costly for firms and societies? CERGE-EI alumnus and Associate Professor at the University of Milan, Vojtěch Bartoš, explains how behavioral economics helps uncover the mechanisms behind bias — and how evidence-based tools can help reduce it. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://x.com/CERGE_EI/

What happens when the labor market doesn’t match workers and firms efficiently? Can online platforms and better data solve the problem? And what role do families play in shaping the workforce of tomorrow? Luca Mazzone, Assistant Professor at CERGE-EI and Economist at the IMF, talks about the hidden dynamics behind wage inequality, employment policy, and how households shape labor market outcomes. His research looks into how people and firms find each other—and why this matching process matters for productivity, inequality, and growth. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://x.com/CERGE_EI/

What determines the financial decisions we make throughout our lives—like choosing a mortgage, saving for retirement, or deciding whether to invest? In the latest episode of Talking Economics, we explore these questions with Marta Cota, a CERGE-EI PhD alumna and Assistant Professor of Finance at Nova School of Business and Economics in Lisbon. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

In the latest episode of Talking Economics, we speak with Vladimír Novák, Senior Economist at the National Bank of Slovakia and CERGE-EI PhD alumnus, about his recent research and how it connects to real-world policy challenges. Vladimír’s academic work focuses on how individuals process information—and how that, in turn, shapes their beliefs, decisions, and broader societal outcomes. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

Associate Professor at CERGE-EI, Ctirad Slavík, discusses taxation, inequality, and the economic impact of policy reforms in our latest episode. He shares insights on optimal capital taxation, the effects of automation on wages, and the 2021 Czech income tax reform. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

Our next guest on the Talking Economics: Emerging Scholars series is Theodor Kouro, one of CERGE-EI’s job market candidates this year. Theo’s research spans behavioral, experimental, and development economics, with a particular focus on gender economics. In his job market paper, he explores the mechanics of autonomy in a large-scale natural field experiment on effort provision. This paper earned him the 2023 Young Economist of the Czech Republic award. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

Our next guest on the Talking Economics: Emerging Scholars series is Sinara Gharibyan, one of CERGE-EI’s job market candidates this year In her job market paper, Sinara examines how memories influence human behavior, particularly political behavior. Her innovative work distinguishes between two types of memory effects: fam-ily memory and collective memory. This paper earned her the prestigious PEDD Young Scholar Award in 2024 in Münster. 🎧 Tune in to hear about Sinara’s personal journey and dive deeper into her fascinating research! https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

In the latest episode of the Talking Economics podcast, a CERGE-EI alumnus Lukáš Makovský shares insights on the central questions and tools of urban economics, how models incorporate people’s preferences, and examines the movement toward urbanization alongside the impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

The podcast series Talking Economics Emerging Scholars is dedicated to showcasing the research and inspiring journeys of CERGE-EI PhD in Economics graduates. Our guest in this episode is Daniil Kashkarov. Daniil’s research interests lie in macroeconomics and labor economics, with a focus on life-cycle modeling, skills accumulation, and the adaptation of workers to labor market disruptions. During his PhD, Daniil spent three semesters at Yale University.  He will join Universidad Carlos III in Madrid as a Postdoctoral Researcher.  https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

The podcast series Talking Economics Emerging Scholars is dedicated to showcasing the research and inspiring journeys of CERGE-EI PhD in Economics graduates. Our first guest is Ella Sargsyan, an empirical economist specializing in development economics. Ella's academic journey included research visits to MIT and Columbia University. She will join UCLouvain as a postdoctoral researcher. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/

In our latest episode of Talking Economics, we met with Barbara Pertold-Gebicka, a CERGE-EI alumna and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Economic Studies of Charles University, to explore family economics and gender wage gaps. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/ https://www.instagram.com/cergeei/ https://www.facebook.com/cergeei/ https://twitter.com/CERGE_EI/