E conomics and management
The Geneva advantage The economics and management sector in Geneva is helping to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. Professor Marcelo Olarreaga, Dean of Geneva School of Economics and Management, explains.
“H undreds of multi-national companies are headquartered in Geneva along with the UN, the Red Cross and the UNHCR. As interactions between human rights, business and sustainable development has become more important, getting business and organisations together allows us to tackle problems from a much more interesting global perspective rather than just a narrow business angle,” says Professor Marcelo Olarreaga, Dean of Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM). This unique combination of institutions - including the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of Geneva - renowned in the field of international economics, plus the private sector and international organisations, creates the Geneva advantage. Home to multinational companies operating with global rules written at the WTO, the UN Conference for Trade Centre and Development (UNCTAD), which looks at the interaction of international trade and economic development and how it can be used as an engine for development, positions Geneva at the very forefront of this area. Addressing the challenges “Geneva is an extremely exciting city for my field of international trade,” explains Prof Olarreaga. “Addressing the challenges and the pushback we face on understanding global integration is very important.
“The future of international trade will depend on how it addresses the big challenges facing the world today” Professor Marcelo Olarreaga
International trade can make a difference, such as the introduction of labour clauses in trade agreements, not yet in place at the multi-lateral level. The WTO here in Geneva is the place to look at how trade affects workers. Environmentally, international trade agreements can limit emissions, or can make both social and economic levels coincide with regulation. The future of international trade will depend on how it addresses the big challenges facing the world today.” Knowledge frontier “We have joint research projects with international organisations where we are pushing the knowledge at the frontier of economics and management, trying to better understand how things work in
order to address their research questions,” says Prof Olarreaga. Seminars in the fields of economic development and international trade, co-organised with international organisations, the Graduate Institute, the WTO and the UNCTAD, meet every week to look at the new developments and assess where the frontier of knowledge lies in these key fields. The school also leverages its knowledge creation through collaborations with public and private sector partners. The Institute of Applied Economic Research (IREG) links the GSEM with locally based firms and the regional and federal public administration to jointly tackle the important challenges they face.
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