News

Project Snapshot 2026 Brings the CERGE-EI Research Community Together

16 March, 2026

On 12 March 2026, CERGE-EI hosted Project Snapshot 2026, bringing together faculty, PhD students, alumni, and prospective students for an afternoon of short presentations introducing ongoing and emerging research projects at various stages, followed by informal conversation and exchange.

The event was also streamed online. Each speaker had eight minutes to present, and there was no formal Q&A during the program. Instead, discussion continued afterwards in the lounge, giving participants a chance to approach speakers directly and continue the conversation in a relaxed setting.

Project Snapshot is designed to showcase the breadth of work across the CERGE-EI community. The term “project” is understood broadly: presentations may feature anything from a major grant, article, or conference contribution to a community-focused initiative or reflections on a research stay. The goal is simple but important: to help people become more familiar with one another’s work, exchange ideas and experience, and build connections across fields.

This year’s presentations reflected that breadth. CERGE-EI faculty member Sebastian Ottinger presented a project that uses the Habsburg Empire as a historical laboratory to study how railroads reshaped society, with a focus on interethnic cooperation, religious minorities, and the adaptation of traditional elites to new technologies. CERGE-EI PhD student Theo Kuoro examined parental educational decisions in Albania, asking how misperceptions about school performance and college eligibility may influence track choices and how better information could improve educational outcomes.

Questions of institutions and decision-making also featured prominently in the program. Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and Empirical Legal Studies, Charles University Faculty of Law, and CERGE-EI alumnus Michal Šoltés presented a study on sentencing recommendations by public prosecutors, highlighting substantial variation even when prosecutors evaluate the same case and raising concerns about consistency and fairness.

CERGE-EI faculty member Clara Sievert presented a project based on field experimental evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo, exploring how access to urban markets affects not only income, but also wellbeing, values, and psychology. The findings suggest that markets may increase earnings while also fuelling inequality, weakening traditional religious communities, and reshaping how people think about happiness and personal agency.

The later part of the program turned to issues at the frontier of public policy and economic behaviour. CERGE-EI PhD student Gayane Baghumyan explored whether ambiguous decision-making environments can create space for racial discrimination. CERGE-EI faculty member Filip Pertold introduced a study of the Czech third-pillar capital-based pension savings system, arguing that it fails to fulfil its intended purpose. According to the study, the system requires citizens to make unrealistically high contributions because of extremely low effective returns and a heavy fee burden.

Principal Economist at the Czech National Bank and CERGE-EI alumnus Branislav Saxa addressed the growing role of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies in 2026, and what their expansion may mean for finance and public policy.

Together, the presentations illustrated the wide range of questions currently being explored by CERGE-EI researchers and collaborators, spanning history, education, law, development, discrimination, and digital money. Project Snapshot 2026 offered a valuable window into current projects and ongoing research across diverse fields of economics.

See the photo gallery here.