On 6 November 2023, the ERC-funded project '20th Century International Economic Thinking' (ECOINT), in collaboration with the Florence School of Banking and Finance of the Robert Schuman Centre, welcomed Beata Javorcik for a discussion on her economic ideas and career.
Beata Javorcik serves as the Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. Currently, she is on leave from her position at the University of Oxford, where she holds the distinction of being the first woman to hold a Statutory Professorship in Economics.
In this interview conducted by Johanna Gautier Morin (ECOINT Postdoctoral Fellow) and Glenda Sluga (ECOINT Principal Investigator), Javorcik shared insights on navigating the field of international trade economics, both in academia and within international organisations, particularly highlighting her experiences as a woman.
“Economics is a very male-dominated profession. At some point, at Oxford, I found myself as one of two females among fifty faculty members. (...) Thankfully, the word is changing and now we have many more women in Oxford economics.”
Her perspectives as the Chief Economist at the EBRD in this historical moment for European construction and the ecological transition offer valuable reflections on the evolving narrative of development and globalisation since the 1990s.
The conversation also explored the role of the EBRD in facilitating the transition towards an ‘open market-oriented economy’ and its vision of a competitive and inclusive market economy:
"The big vision is that we want to improve people's lives by promoting systemic change, so we are not about alleviating poverty, we are not about creating jobs, we are about systemic change. In other words, pushing countries on a better trajectory where they would be able to grow (...) what we do is not only about projects, it is also about policy dialogue. And policy dialogue is needed to unlock some opportunities for projects"
The first episode of the series ECOINT talks with International Economic Thinkers is available here.
Learn more about ECOINT.