The CSE Prize goes to Prof. Ing. Lubomír Mlčoch, CSc

Prague, 4th December 2020                                 

The winner of this year’s CSE Prize for long-term contribution to the development of Czech economic learning is Lubomír Mlčoch, Professor Emeritus of economics from the Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, where he was active as a Dean between 1993–2003 and also as a Vice-Dean for Science and Research between 1993–1996. Moreover, he was a member of a range of Charles University Authorities, including several scientific boards. Prof. Lubomír Mlčoch is one of the most prominent Czech economists of recent generations. The research of Prof. Mlčoch has contributed to a better understanding of the (not) working of the socialist economy in terms of microeconomy and institutional economy.

This prize is awarded by the Czech Economic Society (CSE) to the outstanding representatives of the Czech economic community for long-term contribution to the development of Czech economic learning. Prof. Lubomír Mlčoch is the eighth winner of this prize. This year’s prize is awarded for long-term and versatile support to the development of the economy in a scientific way in the Czech Republic, especially in the ‘90s, when his activities significantly contributed to the building of the newly founded Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University and its Institute of Economic Studies (including the establishment of the Department of Institutional Economics).

In the pedagogical field, Prof. Lubomír Mlčoch has focused mainly on institutional economics and the relationship between ethics and economics. He presents ethics to his students through the synthesis of ethics and economic thinking, often accompanied by a Christian social learning point of view.

The research of Prof. Lubomíra Mlčocha has shown a notable role of top managers of socialist institutions in centrally planned economics and their ability to use the scarce commodity to exercise quasi-property rights while acquiring annuities and wealth. By this, he enriched existing theories on central planning that assumed a hierarchical implementation plan and explained the passive reaction of socialist institutes to an exogenously determined plan. Mlčoch’s belief has expanded these prevailing theories with ‘cooperative games’ and ‘corporate governance’ elements and has shown that when compared, the productivity of a socialistic institution will be lower than the productivity of a profit-oriented institution. The results of this research conflicted with the official pre-November doctrine, and they were not published until the early 1990s. The research itself was performed under harsh conditions of involuntary exclusion from the academic community after 1968.

After 1989, Prof. Mlčoch’s research mainly focused on the issues of institutional economics and ethics in relation to the ongoing economic transformation and on more general issues, such as the arrangement of economic order, institutions, trust and economic methodology.

Prof. Mlčoch is the holder of the Order of St. Gregory the Great granted by John Paul II (2001) and Ordre des Palmes académiques, Officier class (2003). Prof. Mlčoch was also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2008–2018), Bioethical Commission of the Research and Development Council (2012–2018) and the Ethics Commission of Charles University (2013–2018).

The prize will be ceremoniously handed over to Prof. Mlčoch at the XI Binary Conference of CSE that was moved to May 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

More information about the prize can be found on the website of České společnosti ekonomické (www.cse.cz).

Contact for journalists:

Roman Horváth, Institute of Economic Studies, FSS CHU, 739 126 667, roman.horvath@fsv.cuni.cz

Svatopluk Kapounek, CSE President, 739 348 954, svatopluk@kapounek.cz

Daniel Münich, the Coordinator of CSE prize, 736 607 705, munichd@gmail.cz

 

Note for editors:

The CSE is a civic association of professionals and supporters of the economy field. The primary mission of the CSE is to help the development and popularisation of the economy in the Czech Republic in a way that respects and supports opinion plurality and independent development of economic courses.


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