The Eesti Pank research award in the doctoral category was presented to Milen Arro-Cannarsa for her research on the effects of monetary policy in an open economy. The prize in the Master’s category was shared between four research papers: Igor Mohhov studied how the assessment of credit risk at banks affects financial stability, Heli Song researched how owning residential property affects life satisfaction, Jiahao Zhu analysed the impact of green technology on productivity at Estonian companies, and Asko Tamm assessed how subsidies for district heating affect consumer prices.

Tairi Rõõm, Head of the Research Division at Eesti Pank, who led the assessment of the works, said that the entries this year were of the highest academic standard seen for years. “There were so many outstanding submissions in the Master’s category this year that we decided to share the award between four research papers”, she said. “It is particularly pleasing that all of the award winners are continuing their studies at doctoral level. This shows that the award is achieving one of its main goals of encouraging young economics researchers to continue their academic research.”

The prize in the doctoral category was won by Milen Arro-Cannarsa for her innovative extension of a macroeconomic model used to analyse the effects of monetary policy in an open economy. She showed how international demand for secure assets affects the economy and how a central bank can use its balance sheet to mitigate the negative impact of this. The analysis uses Swiss data to propose new options for monetary policy at a time when interest rates cannot be cut any further.

Four prizes were awarded in the Master’s category. Igor Mohhov studied in his Master’s thesis how the methods used to assess credit risk at banks affect the economic cycle and financial stability. His analysis showed how the selection of data available to the banks for assessing credit risk can affect the loan supply, the credit cycle and financial stability. The findings contribute to a better understanding of how financial crises arise, and provide new information that can be used in macroprudential supervision and in estimating risks to financial stability.

Heli Song researched how home ownership affected life satisfaction in the United Kingdom. The new econometric approach used in her work allows the causal impact of home ownership on people’s subjective well-being to be assessed. The results show that owning a home increases general life satisfaction and satisfaction with specific aspects of it, such as income, health and leisure. The research offers valuable empirical support for shaping housing policy.

The work by Jiahao Zhu analyses the impact of green technology on productivity at Estonian companies. An important scientific contribution of the study is its assessment of how the adoption of green technologies affects not only the productivity of the companies adopting them, but also that of their customers and suppliers. The results show that introducing green technology makes companies more productive and that the positive impact of it increases over time. The work provides valuable input for shaping economic policy to support the green transition.

Asko Tamm used new econometric methods to estimate the causal effect on consumer prices of the investment support for district heating from the Environmental Investment Centre. He finds that the support has reduced the marginal price of district heating by an average of 5–7%, with the effect appearing with a lag of two years. The research provides insights for assessing the effectiveness of public subsidies and improving the design of energy efficiency measures.

The award in the doctoral category is €3,000, while the award in the Master’s category is €2,000. This year, the Master’s award was shared equally among four winners, each receiving €500.

Further information:
Hanna Jürgenson
Communications officer
Eesti Pank
Tel 5692 0930
Press enquiries: [email protected]