About Department of International Comparative Studies

Department of International Comparative Studies

established in 1992 r. at Collegium of Economic Analyses.

Staff members

Andrzej Rzońca, PhD, SGH Professor - Head of Department

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Member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Social and Economic research (CASE.) Member of the Society of Polish Economists (former chair.) Economic strategist with experience from private sector (corporate and financial industries, including hedge funds), public sector (central bank, ministry of finance), international financial institutions (World Bank, European Central Bank) and NGOs (Civil Development Forum Foundation, CASE.) Member of supervisory and advisory boards. Former member of the Monetary Policy Council in the National Bank of Poland during the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro Area and the first war in Ukraine. Long-time advisor to Leszek Balcerowicz (father of free market reforms in Poland.) Repeatedly awarded for innovative research. Holder of Citibank Foundation Kronenberg Prize and Polish Academy of Sciences Fryderyk Skarbek Prize (the two most prestigious Polish awards in economics.) Research interests: growth theory, monetary economics, public finance, economic transition.

Leszek Balcerowicz, PhD, SGH Professor

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Since October 1992, Leszek Balcerowicz has been a Professor at WSE, where he established and leads the Department of International Comparative Studies. 
He has been a Corresponding Member of the History and Philosophy Class of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2006. Leszek Balcerowicz is considered the architect of Poland’s economic reforms initiated in 1989. He designed and executed the radical stabilization and transformation of the Polish economy since the fall of communism in Poland. In September 1989, Leszek Balcerowicz was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of Finance in the first non-communist government in Poland after the Second World War. He retained his positions in the government until December 1991. 
From April 1995 to December 2000 he was the President of the Freedom Union, a free market - oriented party and from October 1997 to June 2000 he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. In 2001-2007 he was the governor of the Central Bank of Poland.

Leszek Balcerowicz is a member of the Washington-based international advisory body, the Group of Thirty (G30). In 2011, he was appointed a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee providing advice and assistance on issues relevant to the work of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). Between 2016 and 2017 he was an advisor to the President of Ukraine and Co-Chairman of the Group of Strategic Advisors on the Support for Reforms in Ukraine (2016-2017).
In 2007, he established a think-tank, Civil Development Forum Foundation (FOR), where he remains its Chairman.
Leszek Balcerowicz holds honorary doctorates from more than 20 universities around the world.
In 1992, he was awarded the Ludwig Erhard Prize from the Ludwig Erhard Foundation, Germany. In 1998 Leszek Balcerowicz received „Finance Minister of the Year” title from the British financial monthly „Euromoney”. In 1999 European Institute of Washington granted him its „Transatlantic Leadership Award” for the most outstanding European personality, and he received the Central European Award for Finance Minister of the Year in 1998. In 2001, he was awarded the Friedrich von Hayek Prize, Germany. In that same year he received the Carl Bertelsmann Prize for his achievements during the process of transformation of the Polish economy. In 2002 the Fasel Foundation honored him with a prize for his merits for the social market economy. In January 2004 British monthly „The Banker” recognized Leszek Balcerowicz as Central Banker of the Year for Europe. In October 2004 he was granted the annual „Emerging Markets Award” for the best president of a central bank in Central and Eastern Europe. 
In 2005, he was awarded Poland’s highest decoration - Order of the White Eagle - for his contribution to the system transformation. In 2008 the Leontief Center in St. Petersburg, Russia awarded him the Leontief Prize for outstanding contributions to economic theory. In 2009, he was featured in documentary „It Was a Plan” by Andrzej Fidyk, showing his reforms securing Poland’s transition from socialism to market economy. In 2010, Polish television (TVP) honored him with its most popular achievement award „Superwiktor”. In 2014, he has been named the winner of the Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.

Piotr Ciżkowicz, PhD, SGH Professor

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Graduated in economics from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics (1997-2002). He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Economic Analysis Department of the Warsaw School of Economics in 2008, and his postdoctoral degree in 2016. His research interests include the application of quantitative methods in assessing the impact of fiscal, monetary, labor market and regional policies, as well as business applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence methods. He has co-authored a number of articles in recognized journals (Journal of Economic Geography, Fiscal Studies, Economic Modelling, Applied Economics, Kyklos Empirica). He has obtained research grants worth more than PLN 2 million. He cooperated with the National Science Center and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the evaluation of projects and research units, and coordinated work on the strategy for the development of higher education in Poland.

He co-founded the VC fund Nunatak Capital and the consulting and implementation company StatXplorer, which supports companies in data science transformation. From 2012 to 2015, he was a member of the board of directors of PKP Group, where he was responsible for executing capital transactions and implementing the rail transformation program in Poland. He was also a board member of Luma Investment. Between 2008 and 2012, he built and led the Economic Strategy Team within Ernst&Young, creating advanced econometric solutions for companies. He led a number of data science projects at commercial banks and public institutions. He also served as a member of the supervisory board of a number of listed, state-owned and municipal companies.
 

Agnieszka Słomka-Gołębiowska, PhD, SGH Professor

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Accordion content 2.

Wiktor Wojciechowski, PhD

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He combines his teaching and research work at SGH with activity in the public and private sectors. In the past, he headed the labour market research team at the National Bank of Poland, was chief economist at the Civic Development Forum Foundation and then at one of the commercial banks, and also worked at J.P. Morgan. He initiated and then implemented various scientific projects funded by the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development. He has experience in a number of research projects for the private sector, in which he used econometric methods and machine learning tools. He is a two-time winner of competitions for the best macroeconomic analysts organised by the NBP and the Rzeczpospolita daily. He is a member of the Association of Polish Economists (in the past its Vice-President). Research interests: labour economics, the impact of the institutional environment on the growth of the economy, machine learning.