Grant Projects
Doc. Stanislav Anatolyev, Ph.D.
Econometric methods robust to parameter dimension and data clustering
2024–2026
Modern econometric models become more and more flexible and hence populated by multidimensional parameters and data clustering, whose presence distorts properties of conventional estimation and inference tools. We propose to develop procedures robust to parameter dimensionality and to possible data clustering. Namely, we will work on extending the tests for many restrictions to include a possibility of endogeneity, on more efficient testing for many alphas in factor models, on adapting model building tools to potentially many regressors, and on extending the framework with many instruments to also include data clustering.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 24-12720S
Prof. PhDr. Michal Bauer, Ph.D., DsC.
Discrimination, the Desire to Harm and the Role of Hardship
2023–2028
The research will develop and apply new tools to measure discriminatory preferences and desire to harm in unparalleled depth and breadth. The funding will cover a set of inter-linked projects, including new data collections and analysis of novel data, in order to provide credible empirical evidence about prevalence and predictors of desire to harm and discriminatory preferences against out-group members and identification of factors that can magnify or attenuate such anti-social behavior behavior, including experience of various forms hardship. A desire to harm members of ethnic minorities or people with different political views or religious beliefs represents a strong form of preference-based discrimination which can contribute to inequality, political disagreements and even violent inter-group conflicts. In this project, we will develop and apply a cutting-edge discrimination measurement tool, using economic experiments. We will use consequential money-burning tasks, designed to be easily integrated into large-scale data collections among relevant samples and linked to economic theory. We will deploy them on nationally representative and diverse samples, in order to: (i) estimate the prevalence of desire to harm and discriminatory preferences in various domains (such as ethnicity, religion, age or nationality), (ii) identify which social and economic groups are most likely to discriminate, (iii) test several key conceptual questions, including whether discriminatory preferences are driven by biases in altruism or by a desire to harm, and (iv) identify causal factors that can magnify or to reduce different forms of discrimination and anti-social behavior.
Funded by Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in the ERC CZ program – Project LL2303
The Impact of Economic Conditions on Human Capital Investment Choices and Future Labor Market Outcomes
2025-2027
Previous research suggests that enrollment in post-secondary education (PSE) tends to increase when economic conditions deteriorate. However, little is known about who these additional enrollees are and whether their enrollment "pays off" in terms of their subsequent educational and labor market outcomes. We address this knowledge gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of how business cycle conditions at the time of PSE entry affect who enrolls in PSE, their choices and outcomes during PSE, and their future labor market outcomes. Our analysis requires detailed information on individuals' characteristics for multiple enrollment cohorts and their PSE and labor market outcomes observed over time. We will combine several rich, underutilized, restricted access survey and administrative datasets for Canada and the U. S., and exploit regional differences in economic conditions at PSE entry to identify their effects on multiple cohorts enrolling at various points of the business cycle.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 25-16668S
Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe – participation of the Czech Republic (acronym SHARE-CZ+)
2023 - 2026
The main objective of the SHARE-CZ+ project is to create the conditions for quality research on ageing in the Czech Republic through the collection of interdisciplinary longitudinal data on the 50+ population, harmonised across all EU countries. The result of the project is a unique freely accessible dataset providing information on the state, history and development of Czech and European society, enabling governments and researchers to better understand the consequences of demographic change and to develop optimal measures for public finances, the labour market, health or pension systems.
The project is co-financed by the European Union – Operational Programme Research, Development and Education.
2025-2028
Ageing of the Population and Related Challenges for Health and Social Systems (AGEING - CZ)
Population aging creates economic, fiscal, and social risks. The older population will demand more health and social services. Their provision will require significant labor market capacity and impose additional economic and personnel burdens on public systems as well as on the "sandwich generation" of younger individuals. Finding effective solutions to the challenges associated with population aging will be crucial for maintaining economic competitiveness and social cohesion.This project contributes to addressing socially relevant issues related to population aging through research.The project has three specific research objectives:To quantify the impact of population aging on the health and social systems.To identify ways and factors that help reduce the burden on public systems, and to identify ways and factors that enhance the employment and employability of older individuals.The project is coordinated by the Masaryk University.
The project is co-financed by the European Union (Programme OP JAK, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czecg Republic)
The Distributional Impacts of Macroeconomic Shocks on Expectations and Background Risk
2026-2028
This research project applies novel empirical methods to analyze how macroeconomic shocks differentially impact economic expectations and portfolio decisions across the population. Combining two interconnected work packages, I examine: (1) how monetary policy shocks affect the distribution of households' inflation and income expectations, and (2) how heterogeneity in background risks influences portfolio choices and mediates policy transmission. Using the functional VAR (fVAR) methodology, I analyze the distributional dynamics of expectations in response to monetary policy actions. Through a cross-sectional units VAR (csuVAR) approach, I investigate how background risks - such as income volatility, health expenses, and housing market exposure - shape portfolio responses across the distribution. By integrating data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Survey of Consumer Expectations and the Survey of Consumer Finances, this research addresses critical gaps in our understanding of expectation formation.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 26-22994I
Data, Algorithms, Power: Economic Theories of the Information Society
2022–2026
This project is about developing insights in the most active research area in economic theory –information economics – to help understand the informational transformation that many sectors of the economy and society are undergoing. It will depart from previous research in this field by focusing on the interplay of information and power – such as in questions of privacy, of the ownership of data and algorithms, and the centralization or decentralization of data storage and processing. This includes understanding: (i) How the possibilities of the Internet can be harnessed for efficiency-enhancing information revelation and exchange, (ii) how the mandatory disclosure (or non-disclosure) of information shapes economic and societal outcomes, (iii) how we can most usefully model the economic value of data and algorithms and their ownership, and (iv) how the centralization of data storage and processing interacts with mechanisms of social and economic control.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 22-33162M
Prof. Ing. Štěpán Jurajda, Ph.D., DSc.
Geographical Wage Premia Based on McWages
2025-2027
Thanks to standardized work protocol and technology of McDonald’s restaurants, the hourly wage of McDonald’s Basic Crew enables wage comparisons under near-identical skill inputs and hedonic job conditions. McWages capture labor costs in entry-level jobs, while the Big Macs (earned) Per Hour (BMPH) index measures corresponding purchasing power of wages. We will collect new data to (a) employ highly consistent McWage data to test for the presence of monopsony on U.S. local labor markets, (b) update cross-country McWage comparisons for about 80 countries of the world, in order to provide evidence important for approaches used in the international trade and migration literatures in absence of comparable cross-country wage data.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 25-17442S
Prof. RNDr. Filip Matějka, Ph.D.
Economics of Inattention (acronym ATTENTION)
2021–2026
This project aims to improve our understanding of economies with inattentive agents. Attention to detail, not only to current news, but also to how the world works in general, is central to how we interact with the environment.
In the first part of the agenda, we will study how agents come up with the simplified mental models they use in their decision-making. The aim is to provide a new alternative to rational expectations. We will address the question of endogenous model uncertainty by sidestepping the largely statistical nature of previous work. Our agents learn about a model directly, i.e., all information on the details of the correct model is readily available. The envisioned implications can speak to issues such as the expectations formation and formation of narratives, polarization of opinions, and demand for public policy.
In the second part, we will study how a government optimally intervenes in markets if it finds it costly to get the necessary information. On one hand, a government does not possess the local information of decentralized markets. On the other, markets on their own often generate suboptimal social outcomes. We will explore what information the government should collect, how to use it for regulation, and when instead it should leave markets unaffected.
In the third part, we will leverage recent theories of attention allocation and use uniquely detailed data on attention and treatment choices by hospital personnel (including physicians and nurses). This will allow us to explore in more detail than before what theories describe realistic choices well. Moreover, we will eventually aim at a very practical goal: how to help clinicians decrease their cognitive load and improve medical choices.
ERC Consolidator Grant – funded under Horizon 2020.
https://www.ei.cas.cz/veda-a-vyzkum/attention
Doc. Ing. Daniel Műnich, Ph.D.
2025-2028
Informational inequalities in secondary school choice: from mapping to effective interventions
High-school choice is a crucial decision for students. In Czechia, the system is particularly hard to navigate due to numerous study programmes, insufficient capacities, and a complicated application process. Navigating the system requires extensive information access, which makes it challenging for students with low family support. The proposed project aims to map information inequalities in school choice and develop tools to reduce them. The project consists of three main activities: A representative survey study and secondary data analysis providing insights into the choice process, and two experiments evaluating interventions aimed at reducing information inequalities. These activities will provide guidance on improving the application process and facilitating better choice-making.
Doc. Ing. Daniel Műnich, Ph.D.
2025-2027
Proposed optimization of the secondary school network as a measure to mitigate the impact of global trends
The aim of the project is to analyse global trends and their impact on secondary education, in particular to create variants of optimal designs of the network of secondary schools in the Czech Republic (greenfield and brownfield models), which will lead to an increase in the availability and thus the efficiency of secondary education in view of the expected reindustrialisation or the advent of new technologies. The implementation of the project objective will therefore be financially neutral for the state budget.
Christian Ochsner, Dr. rer. pol.
Modern Times Without Us! Determinants and Effects of Technology Skepticism, Grisons 1900-1940
2023–2026
From the implementation of mechanical looms and threshing machines around 1800 to artificial intelligence (AI) and mRNA vaccines today, societies have always been skeptical about new and innovative technologies. However, little is known about the determinants and effects of technology skepticism. This project aims to fill this gap and explores the determinants of technology skepticism and its effects on economic, health-related and political outcomes. In three different subprojects we explore quasi-natural experiments in the Swiss canton of Grisons from 1900 to 1940 by utilizing a battery of self-compiled archival data. First, we examine how a major health-related shock cause mistrust of health-related policies and technologies. Second, we aim to understand the initial opposition, gradual acceptance and adoption of one of the most influential technologies of the 20th century—automobiles. Third, we use the unexpected abolition of the automobile ban in Grisons in 1925 to estimate the causal effect of the end of a technology ban on rural economic development and investment cycles.
Czech-Swiss project in the Czech Republic funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 23-09092L
Understanding Local Specialization in Industries and Innovation
2026-2028
This proposal provides evidence on core questions of urban economics. Using novel data and historical settings from Europe and the United States, the study examines three key questions: (1) Can forced migration, such as the post-World War II expulsion of German speakers, transfer industries to new locations? (2) How did historical accidents shape the emergence of industrial centers in the U.S.? (3) Can discrimination in a centralized government agency influence regional specialization in innovation? By answering these questions, the research improves our understanding of economic history and urban economics, and provide insights for policymakers aiming to foster industrial growth. This work will involve international collaborations and help strengthen CERGE-EI's role as a leading research institute in Europe.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 26-21266S
Culture and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
2026-2028
The PI aims to conduct cutting-edge research on the role of culture for economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. The study will use original data collection and field experiments in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Africa. The first sub-study will examine local traditional beliefs about illness and their impact on medical decision-making. The second study will explore whether traditional medicine functions as a complement or substitute to modern medicine. A third project will investigate the effect of urban church networks on psychology, morality, and economic development. The research aims to (1) produce high-quality publications in peer-reviewed economics journals, (2) establish a research group at CERGE-EI focusing on development economics and cultural economics, and (3) deepen international collaborations with researchers in the US and Canada.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 26-23728S
Stigma in the Clinic: Beliefs, Bias, and Barriers to Care in Low-Income Settings
2026-2029
Beliefs about illness often carry moral weight: obesity as laziness, infertility as punishment, epilepsy as witchcraft. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), over 90% of the population attributes disease to non-biomedical causes. Given limited formal training, frontline providers may share these views, affecting how they treat patients. Patients, in turn, may withhold symptoms to avoid judgment. This project tests whether such beliefs shape medical decisions and care-seeking. I conduct two randomized experiments focused on epilepsy. The first, with 180 providers, evaluates whether a brief video can shift beliefs and behavior. The second, with 1,000 patients, examines whether posters signaling provider openness increase symptom disclosure. Outcomes include stated beliefs, clinical behavior, and patient-reported symptoms.These studies will yield two papers aimed at top journals, alongside public datasets and policy briefs. Interventions are low-cost and scalable. The project also builds long-term capacity through the CERGE-EI Health Equity Lab, a new platform for mentoring PhD students and advancing research on health.
The project is supported by the PRIMUS Research Programme - Charles University
Ing. Martin Srholec, Ph.D. Ing.
Studies on human resources, mobility and academic inbreeding in higher education
2025-2027
Academic inbreeding, i.e. the practice to recruit own graduates in academic positions, has been long flagged as a major issue in development of universities. Yet major limitations of this literature are that it is overly focused on the impacts of this practice, while insufficient attention has been paid to what explains academic inbreeding itself, most of the literature lacks comparative perspective and there is a dearth of studies that reliably infer on causality. This project helps in filling these gaps in the empirical literature on academic inbreeding by leveraging information on affiliations in author-disambiguated bibliometric datasets merged with a number of other sources to alleviate data limitations for comparative research on this topic, explain major aspects of broad cross-country differences in academic inbreeding and identify the impact of early career grants to researchers on their propensity to remain at their alma mater.
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 25-16561S
Dynamic Economic Design: Social Choice, Contracts, and Information
2026-2028
The PI aims to conduct cutting-edge research to advance the frontier of mechanism and information design by investigating three novel design questions in dynamic environments, where evolving opportunities, information, or preferences iteratively reshape strategic behaviors over time: (1) how institutions can aggregate preferences when individuals sequentially discover their own preferences, (2) how contracts can sustain effort under non-verifiable innovation quality, and (3) how feedback policies can maintain effort amid asymmetric information about progress and motivation. Each study identifies why specific mechanisms (social choice rules, contracts, and information policies) emerge as solutions under distinct institutional constraints or informational asymmetries. The project expects to produce publications in top international journals with an impact factor
Funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Project 26-22836S
The National Institute for Research on Socioeconomic Impacts of Diseases and Systemic Risks (abbreviated as SYRI) is a virtual scientific hub that brings together experts from Masaryk University, Charles University and institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
The SYRI National Institute will bring together scientists who would not otherwise collaborate and provide solutions and recommendations in real time.
Social scientists will focus on research of situations of risk and mitigation options for reduction of problems brought by sudden unexpected events like the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, inflation, price increases, and climate change.
The recent past has clearly shown us how our time is prone to situations of risk, and that socioeconomic inequalities are deepening. One of SYRI's goals is to provide data and in-depth analysis of a kind that has been lacking in the Czech Republic, so that politicians can make the right decisions.
CERGE-EI participates in the project within two research groups led by doc. Ing. Mariola Pytliková, Ph.D. and Ctirad Slavík, Ph.D.
2022–2025
This project is funded by European Union – Next Generation EU.
