EFRI Summer School Rijeka

It is the final day of the Summer School! Our participants started out by presenting their final individual and group tasks which were chosen for their Workshops before the start of the Summer School. After the presentations, the mentors have asked some questions and gave their inputs on the work that was done.🎉🎓

EFRI Jean Monnet International Summer School Day 10 Recap: In his lectures on effective negotiation, Marjan Svetličič emphasized separating people from problems, focusing on interests, and knowing your BATNA, while highlighting the importance of preparation and cross-cultural awareness. In another session, he discussed the complexities of EU negotiations, stressing compromise, coalition-building, and strategic issue pushing. Finally, Nenad Vretenar covered decision-making topics, including rationality, biases, and paradoxes, to illustrate the complexities of making decisions under uncertainty.

The last EFRI Jean Monnet International Summer School lecture, by prof. Nenad Vretenar, covered various topics related to decision making, including rationality, preferences, probability, and common decision biases. It discussed different types of rationality, such as deductive, inductive, and practical rationality, and introduces concepts like subjective expected utility and preference transitivity. The lecturer also examined decision biases like anchoring, status quo bias, and the misconception of randomness, and presented paradoxes like the St. Petersburg paradox and the Ellsberg paradox to illustrate the complexities of decision making under uncertainty.

Nenad Vretenar, PhD is a professor at the University of Rijeka's Faculty of Economics and Business. Nenad Vretenar teaches various courses across undergraduate, graduate, MBA, and doctoral programs, covering topics on organizational theory, operations management and decision making.

The second lecture from prof. emeritus Marjan Svetličič is called “Negotiations in EU Internal Market?“. It taught our students that EU negotiations are complex, require compromise and coalition-building, with participation being crucial. Key strategies include balancing losses and gains through packaged deals, knowing when to push issues politically or technically, and leveraging smaller countries as mediators.

Marjan Svetličič’s first lecture named “How to negotiate effectively“ taught our students key takeaways on effecitve negotiation: separate people from problems, focus on interests, create mutual gains, use objective criteria, and know your BATNA. Preparation, first impressions, and cross-cultural awareness are essential.

Marjan Svetličič is prof. emeritus University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences (was also its Dean), Fellow of the EIBA, was also its president. He was consultant for international organizations like UNCTAD, World bank-IFC, UNIDO, UNESCO, IFC, UNDP, OSCE and EU Commission. In 2002 nominated Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia and received the award for outstanding contribution to international business discipline and practice in Central and Eastern Europe by AIB-CEE Chapter (2017).

EFRI Jean Monnet International Summer School Day 9 Recap: ��Participants visited the Jadran-galenic laboratory, where they learned about the company's history, products, and business model before touring the production facilities. Antonio Portugal Duarte's lecture analyzed the volatility of major international reserve currencies, exploring the potential for the euro to replace the US dollar as the leading international currency. Igor Cvečić's presentation examined the complex interplay of globalization, liberalization, and economic integration, discussing global trade dynamics, regional agreements, and recent trends towards protectionism.

The lecture by Igor Cvečić called “Liberalization, Integration, Globalization, Affirmation OF Protectionism?“ discussed the complex dynamics of globalization, liberalization, and economic integration in the modern world. It explored the benefits and challenges of global trade, examining concepts like Rodrik's political trilemma and the KOF Globalization Index to illustrate the current state of global economic interconnectedness. The presentation delved into regional trade agreements, the role of developing countries in global trade, and the shifting dynamics of major economic powers like the EU, USA, and China. It also addressed recent trends towards protectionism and the potential future of globalization in light of factors such as COVID-19, security conflicts, and technological advancements.

Igor Cvečić is an Associate Professor at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business (EFRI). He is currently Head of the Department of International Economics at EFRI, and member of the International Cooperation Committee. His teaching portfolio includes courses on international economics and trade, European economic integration and EU governance, doing business on the European Market, regional development etc. His research interests encompass also globalization, trade policies, labour market and social policy, macroeconomics. He has been actively involved in various international research projects and is guest lecturer in Poland, Slovenia etc.

Lecture ”Will the Euro Replace the U.S. Dollar as the Leading International Currency? A Volatility Analysis“ by Antonio Portugal Duarte analyzed the volatility of the five major international reserve currencies (US dollar, euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, and British pound) using GARCH models on daily exchange rate data from 1971 to 2022. The study aimed to assess whether the euro could potentially replace the US dollar as the leading international currency based on volatility patterns.

Our second lecturer of the day is Antonio Portugal Duarte. António Portugal Duarte obtained his degree in Economics from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra (FEUC) in 1993, and his Ph.D. in Economics in 2007, with the specialization in Economic Theory and International Economics, from the same university. He was a member of the Scientific Board and the Pedagogical Board of FEUC. He is currently Associate Professor at FEUC, and Academic Coordinator of the International Relations Office at the same institution. He is also a researcher affiliated with Centre for Business and Economics Research (CeBER). As a researcher, he has participated in more than 80 national and international conferences, has published 45 book chapters, and 30 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, and coedited 4 books. António Portugal Duarte has received 5 awards and scholarships, namely “Prémio FEUC Ensino 2018-2019”. In 2014 he was a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of National Economy, University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the Belgrade Banking Academy, Faculty for Banking, Insurance and Finance, Belgrade, Serbia. In 2015, he was Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Birkbeck College, University of London, Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, London, United Kingdom. In 2015, he published the book “O Sistema Monetário Internacional: Uma Perspetiva Histórico-Económica”, Conjuntura Actual Editora, Coimbra.