About the conference

Purpose: To organize an annual scientific conference of Romanian (and Romanian-speaking) academic economists.

Participants: mainly Romanian academic economists affiliated with foreign universities/research institutes abroad, as well as their colleagues working in Romania. Moreover, starting with the 4th edition of ERMAS in 2017, the conference is also open for foreign economists. Similar projects have been implemented on a regular basis in other European countries such as France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Spain.

Financial and logistics support: Provided by research oriented institutions, private companies, and various other institutions implementing public policies in Romania.

The conference will be organized based on two principles:

• Selection of conference presenters will be solely made on quality of submitted papers. This will be decided with full discretion by an outstanding scientific committee, composed of economists of Romanian nationality with outstanding academic and scientific results, as presented on the corresponding section of the website;
• The conference aims to be fully inclusive, that is, open to any academic participants from Romania or abroad, with everybody being able to follow and interact with the speakers.

Among the main objectives of the conference:

• Encourage and disseminate research focused on, or applicable for, Romania, with possible relevance for certain projects that could be developed either by private companies or public institutions;
• Establish/ augment the interaction, networking, and collaboration between Romanian economists working in the academic field, affiliated with institutions abroad or at home, with positive long term benefits on human capital development within Romanian universities;
• Share the academically-relevant expertise/advice of Romanian economists affiliated at renowned institutes abroad with their colleagues, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, at Romanian Economics Departments and Research Institutes;
• Enhance the quality of the debate on economic issues in Romania (e.g. those that receive a high media exposure), by engaging Romanian economists with internationally recognized reputation.

Expected gains for the participating Romanian public or private entities:

Short term:
• The return of the Romanian academic "brain drain" in Economics Sciences, at least once a year;
• Sharing in academic knowledge, as well as know-how, on academic infrastructure from top universities and research institutes abroad;
• Possibility of intensive specialized and/or general training sessions for the staff of private companies, professors/ researchers, and graduate/ undergraduate students, provided by experienced Romanian economists from abroad;
• Increased advertising and media exposure for the organizing institutions;
• Relevant dialogue between the academics, the private sector members and the policy makers, including organizing round tables on actual economic issues.

Medium to long term (after a number of successful meetings of this conference):
• Long-term academic collaborations (teaching/research/ periodic invitations as guest professor etc.) with Romanian economists abroad;
• Increased reputation of the organizing institutions, both domestically and abroad (that could result, for instance, in a number of internationally renowned foreign professors being invited at future editions of the conference, such as, e.g., Nobel Prize winners or potential Nobel Prize winners in Economics, along the best Romanian economists of the moment);
• Such a scientific conference could be, after a number of very successful meetings, organized periodically or ad hoc together with one of the prestigious existing world-, EU- or US-based organizations of economists (e.g., American Economic Association, Econometric Society, Society for Economic Dynamics, American Finance Association, European Finance Association, European Economic Association, etc.) thus inviting also a considerable number of top foreign economists, and increasing the scope and scale of the initial conference;
• Various collaboration relationships in teaching, research, or business consultancy between Romanian researchers in Economics from abroad and their domestic counterparts, or private companies;
• A closer cooperation between academia and policy oriented institutions, such as the National Bank of Romania (BNR) or the Competition Council.