Young economists invited to enter Latvian central bank student paper competition

To promote the research and analysis of Latvia’s and the euro area’s macroeconomic issues by involving the most talented young economists in this work, the Latvian central bank, Latvijas Banka, has announced its annual Competition of Student Scientific Research Papers.

Latvijas Banka is organising the competition for the 23rd consecutive year. 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 enrolled as students in Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programmes at higher education institutions accredited in the Baltic States. Students from the Baltic States studying abroad are also eligible.

The submitted papers should address topics that are currently relevant to the economies of the Baltic States and the euro area (suggestions for topics and a list of award-winning papers from previous years are available on the website:    https://www.macroeconomics.lv/konkursi/latvijas-banka-announces-competition-student-scientific-research-papers  ).

The competition papers need to be submitted to Latvijas Banka from 15 May to 30 May 2025, after which they will be evaluated by a committee of economists.

The award-winning papers will be published on Latvijas Banka’s website    macroeconomics.lv  , and their authors will receive money awards (including EUR 2,500 for the top paper, EUR 1,750 to the two second-prize-winning papers each, and EUR 1,000 to the three third-prize-winning papers each; in the case of co-authored papers, the award will be divided among the authors).

33 papers were submitted for the Competition of Student Scientific Research Papers organised in the academic year 2023/2024. Their authors were students from 6 higher education institutions in Latvia and abroad (the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, the University of Latvia, Riga Stradiņš University, the RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, and the Business School of Vilnius University). Igors Tatarinovs and Reinis Fals, students of the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, won the first prize in the competition for their paper “Phillips Curve in the Eurozone:   Forecasting Inflation and the Output Gap Using Explainable Neural Networks”.

The Regulation for the Competition, the papers of the previous prize-winners, and other materials are available on the website    www.macroeconomics.lv   under the section    FOR STUDENTS  .