Instead of its five annual conferences offered in different parts of the world and which unfortunately cannot be offered due to the pandemic, the Forum has been organizing online-only seminars – International Trade Online (ITO) and Empirical Trade Online Seminar (ETOS). Tibor Besedes, associate professor and director of doctoral programs in the School of Economics is the co-organizer of these events.

ITO brought together 350 participants for their first online event. The weekly seminar (ETOS), draws over 100 researchers from around the world to discuss topics such as trade wars with China, interactions of equity markets and trade liberalization, and the latest changes in the current trade regimes. The most recent seminar focused on whether preferential trade agreements involving intellectual property rights have an impact on trade patterns between partner states. Additional information on the seminars can be found here. 

Anybody can submit a paper for discussion, however, the work should have a strong empirical component and be of the same caliber as those that would be accepted to the major FREIT conferences. 

The seminar series is a great opportunity for graduate students to get involved in and exposed to the research community early on in their academic careers. There are no registration fees and travel costs. Students have the chance to learn about the latest empirical trends in their area of interest, and an opportunity to network with prominent scholars from all over the world. Faculty and students alike are discovering that the best part about online seminars is the opportunity to see many friends and talk about topics that inspire our work.