Latvijas Banka announces a Competition of Student Scientific Research Papers

Latvijas Banka organises the Competition already for the 16th time. Participation is open to citizens and non-citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as well as foreigners who at the time of the Competition are registered as students of higher education institutions accredited as such in the Baltic States, enrolled in Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes.

25 topics (a full list of topics is available on the website macroeconomics.lv), including Monetary policy transmission of the Eurosystem in the Baltic States; Levels of public debt and economic growth; Ageing of population and its impact on the sustainability of the pension system in the Baltic States; Assessment of the effectiveness of the use of the European Union structural funds and foreign direct investment for the Baltic States, etc., are proposed for the Competition.

Papers addressing other crucial topics on the economy of the Baltic States and the euro area in relation to monetary policy may also be submitted for the Competition.

This year, a special award named after the prominent Latvian economist Juris Vīksniņš will be awarded for the best Competition paper which will integrate the scientific methods in the field of economics and history providing an innovative view on one of the stages of economic development in Latvia, the Baltic States or Europe, or an economic idea in a historical context.

The Competition papers shall be submitted to Latvijas Banka from 18 May to 1 June 2018. The Competition papers will be evaluated by a committee specifically set up by Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, the Governor of Latvijas Banka. The papers winning awards will be published on the website macroeconomics.lv and their authors will receive money awards (including EUR 2 000 to the first-place winner and EUR 1 422.87 to the winner of Juris Vīksniņš Award).

12 papers were submitted for the Competition of Student Scientific Research Papers organised for the academic year 2016/2017. The authors of the papers were 18 students from five Latvia's higher education institutions. No first prize was awarded in the Competition, but two second prizes were awarded to Corina Boblic and Ecaterina Vidrascu for their paper "Population age structure in the EU-28: Implications for Gross Domestic Savings and Current Account" and to Oļegs Matvejevs for his paper "Impact of ECB Unconventional Measures on Monetary Policy Stance".

The Regulation for the Competition, the papers of the previous prize-winners and other materials are available in the section "For Students" on the website macroeconomics.lv.