First prize was awarded to Vadym Ilchuk, of the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, for the scientific research paper "Financing Constraints and Productivity Growth in Central and Eastern Europe: Firm-level Evidence". The paper provides a study of the effect of financial frictions on productivity growth rates in Central and Eastern Europe.
"The author has employed the total factor productivity and productivity models and the Orbis data about annual reports of firm. Particular analysis has been dedicated to the legacies of the global financial crisis. The findings suggest a negative effect coming from financial constraints on future productivity growth rates of the firms. An increase in a firm's debt leads to a drop in productivity growth, as successful companies are able to switch to internal financing because their income is strong. According to the author, Latvia ranks among the countries having a higher productivity in the region under review," said LB in its summary.
Two second prizes were awarded. One went to Reinis Buneris of Lund University School of Economics and Management, for the scientific research paper "Financial Determinants of Carbon Dioxide Emissions". The author focuses on a subject that is steadily gaining importance, i.e. pollution of the Earth and risks and consequences of irreversible climate changes.
Ēriks Kasparenoks and Dana Supe, of the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, picked up the other second prize for the scientific research paper "A Subtle Invitation to Bargain: Online Vacancy Data-based Inquiry into the Wage Setting Policies of Latvian Employers". The authors summarise data from various online job vacancy portals by adding extra information about the firms and study wage negotiations in Latvian labour market.
Three third prizes were awarded to the following students: Diāna Heislere and Lauris Zalva, the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, for the scientific research paper "Mayor's Gender and Resource Allocation: Evidence from Latvia".
Aleksejs Mališevs, the Riga Technical University, for the scientific research paper "What do the Interest Rate Term Structure Models Tell Us about the Outlook: in the Context of Different European Union Countries".
Kristijonas Kirlys, the Vilnius University, for the scientific research paper "Uncertainty in the Euro Area and its Macroeconomic Effects".
In all, 30 papers were submitted to the competition this year – seven more than the previous year.
"Moreover, the quality of the submitted papers and that of the award winners in particular is as high as has been observed over the most recent years," LB said.
All the winning papers will be published at the https://www.macroeconomics.lv/ website.
