Development of economies: US – EU

The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation operates a research cooperation with the University of California, Berkeley.

For the academic years 2003/04 to 2005/06 the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation established a program on the theme ‘Development of Economies: US – EU’. Especially transatlantic conflict management is currently a particularly topical and contentious subject. The program was extended for another 3-year period in 2007 and renamed ‘The Berkeley Austria Exchange Program’.

Already in 2002 the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation was co-presenter of a conference on the theme at Harvard University, which met with remarkable academic interest. The research project on the general theme is being carried out collectively by the University of California in Berkeley (UCB), the University of Vienna and the Vienna Institute for International Economics.

Cooperation partner of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation at the UCB is the Institute of European Studies, led by Director John M. Efron, Koret Professor of Jewish history. He has published several books on Jewish history with a special focus on medicine, race science and Jewish memory. His research topics include Jewish orientalists in the 19th century – and the Jewish pride of non-Jewish English football fans. Through the Institute of European Studies, the cooperation project has links with the Department of Economics, the Department of History and the UCB-based Haas School of Business. Partners at the University of Vienna are the Institute of Economic Studies and the Institute for Economic and Social History.

Concentration on the general theme
This is intended to become an on-going concept and to guarantee a high level of commitment among
the academic personnel involved. The aim is for a research group of six to eight academics and about This is intended to become an on-going concept and to guarantee a high level of commitment among
the academic personnel involved.

The aim is for a research group of six to eight academics and about twenty students – at dissertation or PhD level – to concentrate on the general theme chosen by the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation. The participation of post-graduate students is particularly welcome in Berkeley as well. They give the project relevance for the future in many ways. The core of the cooperation will be three workshops – two to be held in Berkeley, the third in Vienna.

Furthermore reciprocal research visits are planned for the scholars. In conclusion, a volume about the research project will be published and officially launched in October 2007. The research project commenced in autumn 2003. The first conference took place in Berkeley in September 2004. Here the academic discussion focused specially on questions arising in the areas of business culture, the job market and economic law.

The second conference, scheduled in Berkeley for September 2005, centred on monetary policy and world trade. In October 2007 the concluding conference will take place in Vienna, and the results of the research venture and the newly published book ‘The European Economy in an American Mirror’ will be presented.

Further sponsors are welcome
To secure such cooperative programs for the future, the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation is looking for sponsors. Further financial resources need to be opened up and dedicated to the Foundation for the long term. In this respect the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation is seeking financial support from enterprises, associations and local government bodies. Such donations are tax-deductible.