KEI is financed with grant funds provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). KEI aims to make a unique contribution by producing homegrown, topquality research and policy analysis.
KEI is administered by the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) at the Stockholm School of Economics.
Since its foundation in 1989, SITE has become a leading research and policy center on transition in Central and Eastern Europe. During this period of time SITE has broadened its research focus to include global institutional change and development. It has also expanded its mission by pioneering efforts to develop human capital building new independent think tanks in countries with economies in transition. In 2000 CEFIR (Center of Economic and Financial Research) which became the first institution to bring back to Russia the first Russian PhDs trained at western top schools was established by SITE. CEFIR’s mission is to improve Russia’s economic and social policies by producing cutting-edge academic research and policy analysis and helping policymakers and the public to make informed choices. SITE established similar economic research centers in Latvia, Poland, China, and now Ukraine.
The Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) is a group of distinguished international donor organizations that joined forces in 1996 to modernize economics education and research in the NIS. The members of the Consortium are: the Eurasia Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Starr Foundation, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the World Bank, System Capital Management and the Interpipe Group.
The Consortium has two distinct programs in Ukraine and Russia:
Ukraine. Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) founded by EERC and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation offers the two–year English–language master’s program in economics. The KSE graduates are well trained in modern market economics. These economists are poised to become leaders in Ukraine’s economic policy circles through post–MA careers in public service, research institute, or private sector, or through completing PhDs abroad and returning to Ukraine to teach. Even though KSE achieved great success in its teaching program, the long-term goal of the KSE is to become a local center for academic excellence in economics. Giving opportunity to graduates with Western training who return to Ukraine to teach and conduct research KSE hopes to encourage the development of a dynamic economic community in Ukraine.
Russia. To encourage the application of modern economic theory to policy analysis and facilitate the creation of a vibrant economic policy community in Russia and elsewhere in the CIS, EERC operates a Moscow-based Economics Research Network which provides individual economists in the region with research funding, advanced training, and professional networking opportunities at home and abroad. Since 2000, EERC-Russia has been serving as the regional representative of the Global Development Network (GDN) in the CIS countries.
