Institution: BICEPS
Yauheniya Shershunovich
Yauheniya Shershunovich is an Associate Academic Officer at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). She holds a PhD in Applied and Development Economics from the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn.
Her research focuses on environmental economics, the green and circular economy, and pro-environmental behavior.
(Last updated May 2026)
Radzivon Marozau
Radzivon Marozau is a Research Fellow at BICEPS. He holds a PhD from Deusto Business School at the University of Deusto, Spain, and has extensive academic experience in economics, business, and entrepreneurship.
He is a country coordinator for the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS) and a member of the Belarusian team for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). His research focuses on private-sector development, entrepreneurial universities, academic entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship education.
(Last updated June 2026)
Anna Pluta
Anna Pluta is a research fellow at BICEPS and a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of Latvia. She holds a Master of Science degree in Economics, University of Latvia.
Tālis J. Putniņš
Talis Putnins is a Professor in the Finance Discipline Group at UTS and a member of the Quantitative Finance Research Centre. He has also held positions at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and the Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, and has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and New York University.
His research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals including the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Review of Finance, and Experimental Economics. Talis is the recipient of a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (ARC). Talis has done consulting and policy work for governments, stock exchanges, and financial institutions and served as an expert witness in legal cases.
His main research interests include financial markets, market microstructure, asset pricing, market manipulation, insider trading, and shadow economies.
(Last updated February 2020)
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)
Marija Krumina
Marija Krumina is a Research Fellow and Director of the scientific institution at the Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS). She is a doctoral degree candidate at the University of Latvia and a leader of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) team in Latvia. Her research interests include entrepreneurship, health economics, labour markets, and migration policy.
(Last updated in May 2025)
Olga Rastrigina
Olga Rastrigina is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, UK. Before moving to the UK, Olga spent six years as a Research Fellow at BICEPS.
Currently, Olga is working on the development of the tax-benefit micro-simulation model EUROMOD.
Aleh Mazol
Aleh Mazol is a Researcher at BICEPS. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Belarusian State Economic University and a Master’s degree in Economics from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE).
His research interests include spatial economics, monetary economics, poverty and inequality, and corporate governance.
(Last updated May 2026)
Anna Zasova
Anna Zasova is a Research Fellow at the Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS). She received her PhD degree in Economics from the University of Latvia. Her main research interests include public economics and labour economics.
(Last updated November 2021)
Alf Vanags
Alf Vanags was the Director of the Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS) until his death in 2016. He was also a Eurofaculty and SSE Riga faculty member. Prior to coming to Riga, he held academic positions at Queen Mary & Westfield College, London University.
Alf was one of the founding editors of the Baltic Journal of Economics and served as its Managing Editor. As Director of BICEPS, he was one of the founders of the FREE Network (Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies).
Alf was one of the founding editors of the Baltic Journal of Economics and served as its Managing Editor. As Director of BICEPS, he was one of the founders of the FREE Network (Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies).
(Last updated July 2016)