Conference honoring Gérard Roland’s career -ECARES

As you know, Gérard has made outstanding contributions to multiple fields, and this event is an opportunity to celebrate his 70th birthday and his work, and to reflect on its impact over the years. It is also an opportunity for us to welcome him back to ULB: Gérard studied economics at ULB, from his Bachelor degree to his PhD, and was a Professor here until continuing his very successful career at UC Berkeley, from which he will retire this year. We are very fortunate that he and his wife have decided to return to Brussels. It is striking how ‘topical’ Gérard’s return in 2025 is: he was a key member of the team that founded ECARES (then ECARE) in 1991, thanks to the help of our Institute for European Studies and of CEPR. ECARES started with a conference focused on topics very close to Gérard’s work at the time: the transition from central planning to a market economy in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and its consequences for the European Union. While we can clearly not be happy with the current state of world affairs, we can say that Gérard’s insights remain remarkably relevant today ! On April the 3rd, we are thus gathering a group of academics, friends, and colleagues to share ideas on topics where Gérard has produced influential research, with a special focus on the above topics as they have evolved in the new ‘geo-politico-economic’ environment. The focus will be both on Europe and its institutions, and also on the global institutional architecture. We are very much looking forward to welcoming you on this occasion !

Micael Castanheira and Mathias Dewatripont, ECARES, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, ULB