Field of research: Business Performance

Ana Burduli

Profile image of Ana Burduli

Ana Burduli serves as the Deputy Head of the Private Sector Development Policy Research Center at the ISET Policy Institute. Ana holds a Master’s Degree in Quantitative Economics from the University of Tartu in Estonia (2017) and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from Tbilisi State University (2014).

Before joining the ISET Policy Institute, Ana Burduli worked as a Business Development Officer at the Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG). Prior to her tenure at PMCG, Ana Burduli served as a Research Assistant at the Central Bank of Lithuania in its Center for Excellence in Finance and Economic Research (CEFER), where she worked on DSGE models. She also worked as a Mentor for the Masters of Applied Economics Programme at CERGE-EI in Prague. Since October 2019, Ana has been a Visiting Lecturer at Ilia State University, delivering the Principles of Economics course to BA students.

Her research interests include public policy, international trade, and competitiveness.

[Last updated March 2024]

Arnis Sauka

Arnis Sauka

Dr. Arnis Sauka is Professor and the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Business at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Siegen (Germany) and has been a Visiting Scholar at Jönköping International Business School (Sweden) and University College London (U.K.).

His academic research findings, which deal with the shadow economy, productive and unproductive entrepreneurship, strategic management and internationalisation have been published in peer reviewed journals, including Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, International Small Business Journal and Journal of Comparative Economics as well as a number of edited books and book chapters. Arnis has also been extensively involved in applied research, including contracted reports for the OECD, European Commission as well as for various industry associations and NGOs. Arnis Sauka is co-author of the annual Shadow Economy Index for the Baltic Countries (with Prof. Tālis J. Putniņš, since 2009), author of the annual FICIL Sentiment Index (in cooperation with Foreign Investors Council in Latvia, since 2015), author of the annual study on the Shadow Economy in the Construction Industry in Latvia (in cooperation with the Partnership of Latvian Construction Entrepreneurs, since 2015), amongst others.

He has participated in and/ or acting as a project manager in several big-scale international projects and has also been involved in management and consultancy activities, including working as Vice-Rector for Studies and Research at Ventspils University College (2011-2013). Arnis is a board member of the Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia (since 2019), NGO BASE (Business Against the Shadow Economy) (since 2015). From 2011-2014 he was Advisor to the Minister of Health on Financial and Economic Issues. He has organized various events, including academic and applied conferences, workshops, seminars, as well as is a frequent speaker in the national media commenting economic and business-related issues.

(Last updated March 2020)