Pursuing its goals to raise the quality of public policy-related debate and decision-making in the Lebanon and the Arab World and to enrich interaction among scholars, officials and civil society, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at AUB is pleased to announce the public lecture and discussion that will be held on Thursday, March 13, 2008, at 4:00-5:30pm at the Auditorium B of the AUB West Hall.

Held in cooperation with the AUB-Economics Student Society, the lecture will be held under the title "Can the Arab Region Have a Modern 'Political Economy? Lessons from the Rest of the World". The lecture's key Speaker is Marcus Marktanner, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, with the participation of two students:

-Lana Salman, economics undergraduate student, Department of Economics

-Hania Bekdash, economics special student, Department of Economics

It is worth noting that Marcus Marktanner, PhD, is an assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Financial Economics at the American University of Beirut. He received his doctorate in economics from the Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany.

In his doctoral thesis he discussed the interaction of national and international political economy aspects of socialist economies' reform process. Prior to joining AUB, he held teaching and research positions in Germany and the US. His research concentrates on the relationship between political regimes and economic development.