Jéco 2016: Interview with Pascal Le Merrer

Jéco 2016: Interview with Pascal Le Merrer

Mon, 24/10/2016

News

Pascal Le Merrer, director of the Jéco and professor of Economics at the ENS de Lyon.

Can you present the Jéco?
For the last nine years, we have had two objectives for the Jéco economy days. Firstly, to analyze and debate on economic issues that concern both our daily lives as well as major national and international issues to help us understand our environment.
Secondly, to encourage exchanges between researchers, administration experts, social stakeholders, business leaders, politicians, economic journalists. We can exchange with a wide audience on subjects which may seem terribly complex as long as we make an effort to be clear and if we adopt a friendly and relaxed approach in a comfortable setting.

What are the highlights of the 2016 edition?
The thread of the 2016 Jéco is: "Economics: the big update". It is around this theme that we will deal with innovation, reforms on the territories of research of full employment, the need to question the issues of health at work, of the debates surrounding the employment contract, the future of the Eurozone...
We are aware that the world is changing but we need the keys to identify the impact of the changes that we are experiencing. The role of experts in the public debate must be examined and in particular, one question needs to be asked: what are economists for? In the 2016 edition we will aim to give a voice to young people entering this changing world.

Why provide conferences that focus on the working world?
Changes in the company and working relationships are an important dimension of the subjects that we will be dealing with this year and this is the result of the reflective analysis in particular by the sponsors of the Jéco.
Businesses are part of society and within them we find questions about management, the impact of automation, quality of life at work, new ways of getting things done. The boundaries between the world of production and consumption are changing. Businesses are opening up, mobilizing and encouraging new cooperation (e.g. hubs), looking for organizational agility, combining cooperation and competition. The world of the "enterprising" extends far beyond that of businesses, we will be investigating how they will be organized in the future, and asking ourselves, are they going to change our way of thinking about production, labor, compensation and collaboration?