3d day at RSSIA 2011
“Hello, citizens” – Koen Schoors, a professor of Ghent University, started his lecture this way.
“Hello, citizens” – Koen Schoors, a professor of Ghent University, started his lecture this way. Perhaps he actually got into the role of the moderator of “Mafia” game the participants were playing the day before. This game is to certain extent an experiment of trust, collusion and cooperation: the characters (citizens, doctor, policemen and mafiosi) were randomly distributed to the players so that each player knew who he was and nothing else. The goal of the innocent citizens was to defeat the Mafia and the Mafia tried to stay alive. The initial bloodthirstiness of the game did not prevent players from having fun – in fact, no victims at all.
The lectures by Koen Schoorsshed some light on the specificity of banking institutions in Russia in early 1990s and in 2000s. They were full of information, that cannot be found in any textbook or typical lecture dedicated to the banking system, and therefore interesting both to the specialists and people, who have very vague ideas about banking at all. Why are there “a lot of banks and no banking” in Russia? How does the design of Soviet cities influence the level of bank credit and capital investment? At the first glance, these questions seem to be very strange or even paradoxical, although answers to them touch upon the crucial issues of the banking institutions in Russia. No doubt that artistic skills of the professor made his ideas even more attractive and easy to understand.
In the afternoon John Nye gave a lecture covering the experimental investigation of markets and then seminars took place in small groups on which participants had been divided in the beginning. Each participant had about 10 minutes for presentation that later was discussed by two opponents: one was chosen among the other participants and another - among the experts. In addition to this, the others were welcome to leave short comments or ask questions. The aim of the discussion was to reveal the weaknesses of the research project and the presentation and to suggest some ideas how to improve it. In fact, some projects have really changed a lot since the short presentation on the very first day of RSSIA.