28th Young Economist of the Year Award
The Czech Economic Society
The Young Economist of 2021 Award
Prague, 25th November 2021
The winner of the Czech Economic Society’s Young Economist of 2020 Award is Ketevani Kapanadze. She has been awarded it for his ‘Lose with Borders, Win with Centers? The Case of the European Integration’ paper. Ketavani Kapanadze studies at CERGE, Charles University, Prague, and she is a research assistant at CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of CERGE and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In her paper, Ketevani Kapandze studies inequalities and a possible convergence of countries of Central and Eastern Europe after joining the EU. Her results point to an increased economic inequality of the Central European region and to the fact that joining the EU resulted rather in a regional divergence. She proposes to support border regions in order to reduce the inter-regional inequality.
Second place in the Young Economist of the Year competition has been awarded to Bohdana Kurylo for her paper on the topic of ‘The Impact of Same-Race Teachers on Student Non-Test Academic Outcomes’. Bohdana Kurilo studies at GERGE, Charles University, Prague, and she is a research assistant at CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of CERGE and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In the award-winning paper she researches the impact of same-race teachers on test results of students. Using a random assignment of teachers into American public schools within the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project she shows that same-race teachers increase the effectivity of communication with black students, which is in accordance with the literature on culturally relevant pedagogy. In her study, she found an empiric support for the alternative explanation of the positive impact of same-race teachers on communication: i) generally higher communication capability of black teachers and ii) more teacher attention focused on students of the same race.
Third place in the Young Economist of the Year competition goes to the collective of authors Sergei Mikhalishchev and Mariia Kosar for their paper on ‘Inattentive Price Discovery in ETFs’. Both authors study at CERGE and work at CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of CERGE and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In their work they show that ETF may contribute to the determination of the market value of underlying stocks. [Note: ETF is a designation of investment products called “Exchange Traded Funds”. ETF have precisely defined weights of assets and are traded in the same way as stocks.] Authors show that their results are consistent with the theory of rational inattention. Moreover, they prove that the market prices of ETF retroactively affect prices of underlying stocks.
The Czech Economic Society has been awarding ‘The Young Economist Award’ to economists under 30 years of age who register for the competition by submitting their original, professional papers. Furthermore, the CSE awards the Karl Engliš Prize to the paper best dealing with Cech economic policy. Moreover, authors under 25 years of age who have never been awarded by the CSE in the past may be granted honourable mentions.
The Karl English Prize for the best paper on Czech economic policy was awarded to Jan Žemlička. The authors studies at CERGE and works at CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of CERGE and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In his work ‘Solving Macro-Epidemic Models using Deep Learning’ he deals with using the methods of algorithmic teaching for solution of macro-economic problems, including epidemiology issues.
Jan Žemlička focuses on solution of complex macro-epidemiologic models using deep neural networks. This method allows to solve realistic models including uncertainty about the epidemic process and rich details about an economy system. Besides, this method facilitates the calculation of optimal parameters of government policies for it allows a simultaneous solution of the model for many different settings of government policy tools.
The CES President Prized was awarded to Klára Kantová, a student at the Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, for her paper ‘Parental Involvement and Education Outcomes of Their Children’. The paper shows results of a research of relationship between parental involvement into the tuition and study results of their children. It shows a positive impact of higher parental involvement on educational results of a child. The results are supported by a randomized experiment with a bond on causal effects. In this control, although lower, they are still significant.
The awards were presented ceremoniously at the General Assembly of the Czech Economic Society which took place on 25th November 2021 at the Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University.
The Young Economist competition is sponsored by the Council of Scientific Societies of the Czech Republic. Its media partners are Roklen24 and Bankovnictví Magazine.
Contact for Journalists
Svatopluk Kapounek, CES President, Guarantor of the Young Economist Competition, phone number: 739 348 954, svatopluk@kapounek.cz.
Note for Editors
The Czech Economic Society (CES) is a civic association of professionals and supporters of the field of economics. The main mission of the CES is to help the development and popularisation of the economy in the Czech Republic in a way that respects and supports opinion plurality and the independent development of economics courses. The CES is a member of the Council of Scientific Societies of the Czech Republic and International Economic Association.
More information about the CES’s awards can be found on the CES website (www.cse.cz).
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