Jan Švejnar

Infobox_Scientist
name = Jan Švejnar

---

birth_date = Birth date and age|1952|10|2|mf=y
birth_place = Prague, Czechoslovakia
field = Economics
citizenship =

Jan Švejnar (born October 2 1952) is a US-based, Czech-born economist. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2008 election of the President of the Czech Republic.

An adviser to former Czech president Václav Havel for almost a decade, Professor Švejnar is Director of the International Policy Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the Everett E. Berg Professor of Business Administration, and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is also a founder and Chairman of CERGE-EI in Prague (a joint workplace of the Charles University in Prague and Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic that offers an American-style Ph.D. program in economics that educates the new generation of economists for Central-East Europe and the Newly Independent States). He also served as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ČSOB Bank (until November 2007) and Co-Editor of the Economics of Transition. He is also a Fellow of the European Economic Association and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London) and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn).

Life

Švejnar went into exile in 1970 and later on graduated from the Cornell University in Industrial and Labor Relationships and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics at the Princeton University. His academic interests are in the areas of economic development and transition, labor economics and behavior of the firm. His research focuses on the determinants and effects of (a) government policies on firms and labor and capital markets, (b) corporate and national governance and performance, and (c) entrepreneurship. He is the author and editor of a number of books and has published widely in academic, policy and practitioner-oriented journals in advanced and emerging market economies, including "the American Economic Review, Econometrica, Economica, Economics of Transition, European Business Forum, European Economic Review, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Economics", and many others.

Run for Czech presidency

On December 14 2007 he announced his candidacy for the position of Czech president in the upcoming indirect presidential election. His nomination came from a proposal of 10 Senators (party affiliation - KDU-ČSL: 2, ČSSD: 3, SNK-ED: 1, independent: 4). In Parliament, his support was generally based on the Deputies and Senators elected for the Czech Social Democratic Party and the Green Party.

On February 8 2008, Švejnar faced Václav Klaus, the incumbent Czech president, in the first round of presidential election held within the both chambers of the Czech Parliament. In a second round on February 9 2008, neither candidate gained the required majority of 140 votes in both chambers together. Václav Klaus received 139 and Jan Švejnar 113 votes out of 278 votes cast in both chambers together.

In a third round on February 15, Klaus was re-elected with 141 votes out of 279 lawmakers present, one more than the required minimum, while Švejnar received 111 votes. [ [http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/16/content_7612647.htm "Klaus re-elected Czech president"] , Xinhua, February 15, 2008.] Klaus' victory margin was supplied by 3 MPs who were elected for the ČSSD.

References

External links

* [http://sitemaker.umich.edu/svejnar/ Biography at the University of Michigan]
* [http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2008/01/29/UAdministration/If.Elected.u.Prof.Would.Drop.U.s.Citizenship-3173730.shtml If elected, 'U' prof. would drop U.S. citizenship] (The Michigan Daily)
* [http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=295887 Czech president probably not chosen in election] (Czech Press Agency)