THE 5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

Fostering recovery through metaverse business modelling

16-17 June, 2022, Bucharest, Romania

The past years’ uncertainties and pressures resulted from the pandemic, alongside new developments in social technology, 5G, cloud computing, augmented and virtual reality, generated the perfect setting for the metaverse to gain traction. Several companies found there’s a critical need to redefine the work environment and started exploring the metaverse concept beyond the entertainment sector. Thus, new tools for collaboration and data visualization within a digital shared space are being created, aiming for a fully immersive interaction between the virtual and the physical worlds within the next few years. While still in its early developments, the metaverse can be seen as an extension of the social media platforms, and an opportunity to leverage remote work even further.

ICESS 2022 provides a space for all those interested in Economics and Social Sciences to discuss and exchange research ideas in the light of the work environment, business model, and technological changes driven by COVID-19. We welcome both empirical and theoretical work that is broadly consistent with the conference’s general theme. Researchers, PhD students and practitioners are invited to submit papers on the topics related to fostering recovery through metaverse business modelling, such as, data science and digitalization, frameworks, regulations, digital fatigue, marketing, finance etc. that will help develop innovative instruments for countries, businesses and education to recover and adapt.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Radu Vranceanu

is Professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School and a research fellow with THEMA (CNRS) research center. He holds a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Paris II, HDR, and is widely recognized as having special expertise in the theory of expectations and the analysis of informational inefficiencies, which he has applied to various fields including financial and exchange rate crises, monetary and public debt policies, research management, labor contracts and managerial behavior. He is now a driver of research in experimental economics at ESSEC, where he carried out several studies in team production, gender issues, lies and deception, cooperation in public goods games. In 2000-2001 Radu Vranceanu worked for the UN Economic Commission for Europe; he also served as a Dean for Research of ESSEC Business School for many years. He is now the ESSEC representative for scientific integrity (RIS). See also: https://faculty.essec.edu/en/cv/en-vranceanu-radu/.

Keynote Speech
Lies and deception in an economic context. Insights from experimental economics research

Bruno Rossignol

is Head of Programme for Climate and Heritage at the EIB Institute, the philanthropic arm of the European Investment Bank.

Before joining the Institute, he was Deputy Director of the Communication Department at the EIB (2010-2014) after having been Head of Media Relations at Clearstream, the International Central Securities  Depository (2005-2010), Director of Corporate Communications at brokerage firm Exane BNP Paribas (2001-2004), personal adviser to Jean-François Theodore, Chairman of Euronext pan-European stock-exchange as well as its chief Press Officer (1995-2001).

Bruno Rossignol started his professional career as a journalist for Agence France Presse (1985-1995) where he was notably Head of business and economics reporting in Washington DC covering the IMF, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury.

He is a graduate from Sciences-Po Paris and holds a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in contemporary history also from Sciences-Po.

Keynote Speech
The EIB: fostering recovery in an uncertain world

SELECTED PAPERS WERE PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING PROCEDINGS VOLUMES/JOURNALS

1. Conference Proceedings

A selection of the presented papers was published in the Proceedings Volume.

2. Springer proceedings

A selection of the presented papers was published in Springer Proceedings – Business and Economics.

3. Journal of Competitiveness

A selection of the presented papers was published in a Special Issue of Journal of Competitiveness.

4. Economic Computation and Economic Cybernetics Studies and Research

A selection of the presented papers was published in the Partner journal: Economic Computation and Economic Cybernetics Studies and Research

5. Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Society

A selection of the presented papers was published in the journal: Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Society

SPECIAL EVENTS

Economic Ideas and Political Action
in Shaping Economic and Monetary Union:
Pierre Werner and Luxembourg
under the high patronage of Mrs Yuriko BACKES, Minister
of Finance of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The year 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the introduction of euro banknotes and coins – the physical form of a currency that has become an important symbol of European identity. The single currency bears the hallmark of Pierre Werner (1913-2002), Finance Minister and Prime Minister of Luxembourg for many decades, whose 1970 Werner Report provided a detailed blueprint for Economic and Monetary Union.

To reflect on the origins of Economic and Monetary Union, the theoretical approach and political action of Pierre Werner and the role of Luxembourg in the establishment of the single European currency, Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg, the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH),
are pleased to invite you:

Elena DANESCU,
University of Luxembourg,
Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH)

The international financial center in Luxembourg grew considerably in the 1960s, driven by proactive government policy, flexible regulation, a willingness to harness external opportunities (such as the 1963 US interest equalisation tax and the 1968 provisions introduced by the Bundesbank) and the establishment of Community institutions and European funding institutions in the country. As Luxembourg was in a currency union with Belgium within the BelgiumLuxembourg Economic Union and did not have its own Central Bank, these developments were all the more meaningful. When the European integration process experienced a series of major crises – including the failure of the European Defence Community and European Political Community in 1954, the empty chair crisis in 1966 and General de Gaulle’s veto on British accession in 1962 and 1967 –, Luxembourg set out on the path of European monetary integration, under the impetus of Finance Minister and Prime Minister Pierre Werner. In October 1970, the Werner Report provided a detailed blueprint for Economic and Monetary Union and laid the foundations for the euro. The Luxembourg financial center would serve as a “laboratory” for the future single currency.

This paper makes extensive use of Pierre Werner’s previously unpublished archives, other relevant European and international archives and original interviews, adopting an interdisciplinary approach to analyse Luxembourg’s leading role in reconciling different views on EMU and fostering political commitment to a European currency among the Member States. The paper demonstrates how Luxembourg was a driving force in the development of a form of transnational, network-based cooperation that resulted in the emergence of a monetary elite, which in turn had a significant influence on the transfer of political ideas and solutions within the Member States and also on the supranational decision-making process with regard to European economic and monetary integration in the 1970s. Elite transnational networks and the consensuses they reinforce, develop and disseminate are critical to our understanding of progress and change in world politics.

Keywords: Economic and Monetary Union, single currency, financial integration, Pierre Werner, Luxembourg.

Exhibition
“Pierre Werner (1913-2002) – A life dedicated
to Luxembourg and Europe”

As a long-standing senior civil servant, minister and Prime Minister from the end of the Second World War until the mid-1980s, Pierre Werner gave his country, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a voice that would be heard beyond its borders. He was closely involved in integration and policy-making efforts at the national, regional and European levels. He was an excellent listener and known for his skills of understanding and reconciling apparently incompatible positions. He was committed to defending the vital interests of Luxembourg and Europe over the long term. Pierre Werner is unanimously recognised as one of the main architects of Economic and Monetary Union: the 1970 Werner Report sketched out the fundamental features of what would later become the euro.

Based essentially on Pierre Werner’s private collections and other relevant Luxembourg and European archives, the exhibition aims to paint a picture of
Pierre Werner from various angles – his personality, his role as a father and family man, his social ties and intellectual interests –, while also outlining his thinking and his achievements as a politician and committed European.

Pierre Werner was the first Luxembourger to be elected as an honorary member of the Romanian Academy (in 1993) and to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. He was also named as an honorary citizen of the city of Sibiu (in 1998).

Organisers:

Europe Direct University of Luxembourg (EDIC), University of Luxembourg and Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH)

Design, texts, documentation and layout:

Henri Werner

© 2022 Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History

Yuriko BACKES

Yuriko BACKES was born on 22 December 1970 in Kobe, Japan.

Education and qualifications
After graduating with an International Baccalaureate from the Canadian Academy International School in Kobe in 1989, Yuriko Backes obtained a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1992. She then attended the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she successfully completed a master’s degree in Japanese studies in 1993. Yuriko Backes obtained a second master’s degree in European political and administrative studies from the College of Europe in Bruges in 1994.

Governmental posts
On 5 January 2022, following the resignation of Pierre Gramegna, Yuriko Backes joined the coalition government between the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng) as Minister of Finance.

Professional activities
Yuriko Backes began her professional career in 1994 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has held various positions, including at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York, the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the Western European Union in Brussels, and the Luxembourg Embassy in Japan.

As attaché at the Directorate of European Affairs and International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg, she was sworn in as a civil servant in 2001. The career diplomat was then assigned to the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union in Brussels from 2001 to 2006.

She continued her diplomatic career as deputy head of mission at the Luxembourg Embassy in Japan from 2006 to 2008 and as deputy head of the Directorate for International Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg from 2008 to 2010.

From 2010 to 2016, Yuriko Backes was the diplomatic adviser and sherpa to Luxembourg Prime Ministers Jean-Claude Juncker and Xavier Bettel. She was the representative of the European Commission in Luxembourg from 2016 to 2020. From June 2020 until her appointment to the government, she served as marshal of the Grand-Ducal Court.

Source: www.gouvernement.lu

Elena DANESCU

Elena DANESCU holds a PhD in Political Economics from the National Institute of Economic Research (INCE) of the Romanian Academy, with a thesis on the Luxembourg development model and the achievements of Pierre Werner.

Previously, she obtained a DEA postgraduate diploma in international, diplomatic and strategic relations from Paris III University and a Master’s degree in Economics from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies (ASE). She began her career as a researcher at INCE and guest lecturer at ASE before becoming a researcher and diplomat in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

She was involved in multiple international projects and networks, initially focusing on the European integration and transition to democracy of Central and Eastern European countries before turning her attention more particularly to the role of Luxembourg and its role in the European integration history, in Economic and Monetary Union and in EU governance.

She was a researcher in the European Integration history at the Luxembourg Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE), where she developed the interdisciplinary “Pierre Werner and Europe” research project (2011-2017) based on an exploration of the Werner family archives, opened for the first time for research purposes. She is currently Research Scientist to the University of Luxembourg’s Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH). She has authored a wide range of research publications in her specialist areas. She is an elected Member of the University Council – University of Luxembourg (2018-2023), of the Board of the Fondation du Mérite européen, and of the Council of the Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe (Lausanne).

She is Fellow of Robert Schuman Institute of European Affairs and since 2019 she is the Coordinator of Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg.

See also: https://www.c2dh.uni.lu/people/elena-danescu

PHOTO GALLERY