Keynote Speakers and lectures

Monetary policy: how to deal with fragmentation

by Mário Centeno, Governor of Banco de Portugal and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank since July 2020.  He served as President of the Eurogroup and Chair of the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism, and for over four years he was Finance Minister of Portugal. An experienced economist, Mr Centeno has held several positions in Banco de Portugal, where he started his career in 1993. He has a strong academic background with a PhD in Economics, from Harvard University, and has published several academic papers.
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   What Can We Learn From an Emerging Global Definition of Urbanisation?

Abstract
To overcome the wide variation in national definition of urban areas, six international organisation developed a global methodology called the Degree of Urbanisation. It was developed to facilitate international comparisons and not replace national definitions. This methodology was endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in 2020. Since its endorsement, a growing number of countries has implemented the definition. This implementation is supported by a wide range of international agencies including UN Statistical Division, UN Habitat, UN FPA, OECD and the World Bank.. This key note will give a brief overview of the methodology, its development and implementation by countries across the globe. In response to comments from statistical offices and researchers, the definition has been improved and expanded to also cover functional rural areas and urban agglomerations. In parallel to the implementation by individual countries, a growing amount of data by Degree of Urbanisation based on surveys, censuses and satellite imagery has become available. The combination of the new definition and new data allows us to gain new insights. The key note will show how natural change, net-migration and reclassification have affected cities, towns and rural areas in different ways. It will highlight the big differences in density and land use between cities and urban agglomerations in high and low income countries. Last, it will show how life in cities differs from that in rural areas across the globe using the latest results from the Gallup World Poll.

by Lewis Dijkstra, Team Leader Urban and Regional analysis at Joint Research Centre, European Commission and Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science
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    Collective Actions and Territorial Development: From Innovative Milieus to New Commons

by Leïla Kebir, Associate Professor in tourism and territorial economy at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Trained as an economist, she works in the field of territorial development in the context of globalization and, more recently, ecological transition.  Over the last few years, She has been developing a new line of research in the analysis of the new commons. In particular, since May She has had the opportunity to coordinate the COMMOUNT project (FNS), which focuses on new mountain commons.
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Persistence and Change of Regional Entrepreneurship
in the Long Run

Abstract
Entrepreneurship can be an important source of economic prosperity and well-being. As a consequence, entrepreneurial activity may represent a key target of a policy aimed at promoting economic growth. The pronounced differences in the level and type of entrepreneurial activity between regions clearly suggest that the main underlying determinants and levers for fostering entrepreneurial activity can be found at the regional level. Furthermore, region-specific conditions may be responsible for differences in the effect of entrepreneurial activity on regional development. The lecture provides an overview of the recent research on the long-term persistence and change in regional entrepreneurship, i.e., self-employment and new business formation. One of the key results of this research is that regional entrepreneurial activity may have important historical roots. Such historical roots can lead, in particular, to a pronounced tendency of regional entrepreneurship to be rather persistent and to change only slowly and over a long period of time. Alternative explanations of these patterns are discussed. A main focus is on the implications for theory development and for regional-level policy. Finally, main open questions and promising avenues of further research in this important new field are identified

by Michael Fritsch, Professor of Economics and Chair of Business Dynamics, Innovation, and Economic Change at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany. He is author of numerous books and more than 200 articles in scholarly journals and edited volumes. He is Associate Editor of Small Business Economics – An Entrepreneurship Journal and is Member of the Editorial Board of several scholarly journals.
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Regional Development for Sustainability and Peace:
The Role of Entrepreneurship

By David Audretsch, Distinguished Professor and Ameritech Chair of Economic Development at Indiana University. He is ranked as the top scientist globally, according to the World Top 100 Business & Management / Entrepreneurship Scientists 2024. He also is a Professor of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Klagenfurt, and an Honorary Professor of Industrial Economics and Entrepreneurship at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany.
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   Old and New Regional Inequalities

by Joaquim Oliveira Martins, Special Advisor of the EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms and Counsellor at the Center for Prospective Studies and International Information (CEPII, Paris). He was previously Deputy-Director of the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities. He was also Head of the OECD Structural Economic Statistics Division. He authored many academic articles and coordinated several OECD projects, namely on Policy Response to the Threat of Global Warming, Competition, Regulation and Performance, Ageing & Growth, Investment in Tertiary Education, and Public Health Expenditure Projections. He coordinated the first OECD Economic Surveys of Brazil, Chile and several transition countries.