HSE Students Attend One of the Best Summer Schools in Economics

Zaruhi Hakobyan, Research Master Program in Economics alumna and prospective doctoral student at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, shares her impressions on the participating in Israeli Victor Rothschild Memorial Symposium. In summer 2016 four students from the Faculty of Economic Sciences attended, three of them were partially funded by the Symposium and the Faculty of Economic Sciences.

This July I took part in a Summer School on Theory of Networks hosted by the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) of Jerusalem,  organized by Nobel-prize winner Eriс Maskin of Harvard University and HSE,  and three other prominent scholars:  Elchanan Ben-Porath,  (The Hebrew University), Matthew Jackson (Stanford University), and Benjamin Golub (Harvard University) . My participation was partially supported by the HSE Moscow Faculty of Economic Sciences and the Symposium; together,  they paid for my airfare and part of my accommodation costs .  

The summer school in Israel was designed very well: we received reading assignments, lecture topics and essential information about Jerusalem prior to our arrival. The staff organized cultural enrichment tours and helped us print out posters for the poster session.

The lectures covered all of the core theoretic models, from fundamental theory all the way to new research in the theory of networks.  In addition, econometrics and experimental studies were included into program to demonstrate to us the areas of economics in which  the theory of networks is developing most.  According to Professor Benjamin Golub, this summer school allows graduate students to cover many topics on which Professor Matthew Jackson lectures his PhD students at Stanford. We also had the chance to attend talks about published research papers and discuss questions on the fields that have not been explored yet.

After the lectures, the participants had the opportunity  to discuss various questions with professors in a casual and friendly atmosphere. They readily suggested us reading materials, ways in which we could develop our research and research methods that could give us best results. I participated in a poster session with presentation of my Master Thesis “Information manipulations and protests” and this enabled me to receive helpful feedback and advice about my future progress in this area.

Now, the event is over, but  every participant has access to the conference materials, and lecture videos are available now as well. This is a very convenient way to revisit what I have learnt and analyze it once again. Participation in this symposium affected not only my present since I gained new experience, but much more my future – it helped me to narrow my focus for development in doctoral school.