Klaus Liebscher Award conferred for the 12th time
()Young economists receive OeNB award for outstanding research on European integration
At the Global Economy Lecture co-organized by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), OeNB Governor Ewald Nowotny today announced the winners of the Klaus Liebscher Award, which was conferred for the 12th time.
This year’s two prize-winning papers, which were selected from numerous excellent submissions, address particularly topical economic policy issues and display outstanding academic quality: “Fiscal Stimulus in a Monetary Union: Evidence from Eurozone Regions” by Maria Coelho, University of California, Berkeley, and “Trade and Interdependence in International Networks” by Francois de Soyres, Toulouse School of Economics.
In her paper, Maria Coelho uses state-of-the-art empirical methods to analyze the impact and effectiveness of regional Structural Funds in the European Union. Her findings show that these programs are highly effective in the short- and medium-term and have clearly measurable output and employment effects.
Francois de Soyres’s paper looks at the connection between international trade and the business cycles of the involved trade partners. Studying the issue from both a theoretical and empirical viewpoint, he finds that trade results in the synchronization of trade partners’ business cycles. This synchronization is markedly driven by the trade in intermediate goods, but only marginally by the trade in final goods.
The Klaus Liebscher Award was established in 2005 on the occasion of the 65th birthday of former OeNB Governor Klaus Liebscher in recognition of his commitment to Austria’s participation in Economic and Monetary Union and to the cause of European integration. Every year, up to two papers by young economists from EU Member States or candidate countries are awarded EUR 10,000 each. Papers must be deemed excellent in scientifically discussing topics of European integration and Economic and Monetary Union. The Klaus Liebscher Award is the highest academic award the OeNB bestows.
The occasion was also used to announce the 2016 winners of the OeNB’s Olga Radzyner Award. This annual award was established to commemorate Olga Radzyner, former Head of the OeNB’s Foreign Research Division, who pioneered the OeNB’s CESEE-related research activities. It is bestowed on young economists from Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries for excellent research on topics of European economic integration.