CURRICULUM VITAE
Jelena Žarković Rakić
Faculty of Economics and FREN, University of Belgrade
Kamenicka 6,
11000 Belgrade,
phone: +381 11 3021171, fax:+381 11 2639560
Email: zarkovic@ekof.bg.ac.rs

Current positions:

• Assistant professor; Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, as of 2011.
• Director, Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN), as of 2012
• Consultant, Project: Policy Impact Analysis - from inactivity to employment: Opportunities for Raising Activity and Employment in Serbia, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Strategy Unit, Government of Serbia, 2011/2012
• Project coordinator and researcher, Project: Making Work Pay in Western Balkan Countries: Evidence from Serbia and Macedonia. Regional Research Promotion Programme Western Balkans. 2012/13
• Project coordinator and researcher,  Project: Addressing rising inactivity of older people in Serbia. ERSTE Foundation Fellowship for Social Research 2012/2013.
• Member of the editorial office, Quartely Monitor of Economic Trneds and Policies in Serbia. Following trends on Employment and Wages, as of 2011

Past positions:  

• Social Policy Coordinator; Project: Social Policy Reform-Building and Strengthening State-Civil Society Relationships to Reduce Poverty and Social Exclusion in Serbia, funded by the UK’s Department for International Development; Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, Belgrade, 2003.
• Teaching assistant; Dept. of Economic Theory and Analysis, Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. Courses: Public Sector Economics, Principles of Economics, Political economics and Comparative economic systems; 2003- 2011.
• Researcher; Project: Stipulating economic reforms in Serbia- growth, employment and competition, Serbian Ministry of Science and Faculty of Economics in Belgrade; 2004-2008
• Short-term Consultant, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia country chapters for the OECD tax and benefit model, World Bank, September/October 2009.
• Project Coordinator and Researcher; Project: Building a Serbian tax and benefit micro-simulation model using EUROMOD”, FREN and the ISER, University of Essex, 2009/2010.
• Consultant, Project: Quantitative assessment of changes in the coverage and adequacy of social assistance as a result of adoption of the Draft Law on Social Welfare in Serbia. Project done for the World Bank, FREN, 2010.
• Lecturer, Courses: Preparation of public policy proposals and evaluation of public policies, Human Resource Management Service of the Government of Serbia and  Hanns Seidel Stiftung

Degrees or Diplomas obtained:

• Diploma from Georgetown University (USA) for courses attended at The American Institute on Political and Economic Systems, Prague, 2002.
• BSc in Banking and Finance, Faculty of Economics, University of Novi Sad; 2003
•  Mphil degree in Public Sector Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. 2006
• PhD; Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. Thesis title: “Employment effects of labor tax cuts:  evidence from Serbia”; November 2010

Education and training:

• Visiting Student, Research and writing of a master thesis paper; George Mason University (USA); June/July 2005
• Visiting PhD student; European University Institute, Florence, Italy. January-July 2009.  
• Impact Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policies, Belgrade, Feb 21-23, 2011. World Bank Seminar

Computer skills and competences:

• Good command of Microsoft Office tools, STATA, SPSS and E-views

Language skills:

• English – fluent
• French – intermediate
• Italian – basic
• Serbian - native

 
Selected articles and working papers:

• “Simulating Policy Reforms: Distributional and Poverty Outcomes of the New Social Welfare Law in Serbia” (forthcoming chapter in a book published by Springer)
• “Addressing inequality and poverty with tax instruments”, Economic Annals 56(190), 2011
• “Improving Work Incentives: Evaluation of Tax Policy Reform Using SRMOD”, EUROMOD Working Paper Series: EM11/12, Published: December 2012
• “From Inactivity to Work: Unleashing the Untapped Potential of the Labour Force in Serbia”,  in Cerović, B., Jakšić, M, Mladenović, Z., Prašćević, A. ed. : From Global Crisis to Economic Growth. Which Way to Take? VOLUME I, ECONOMICS. Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, 2012.