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Department of Economics
05 November 2018

Congratulation to our prize winners!

Best theses honoured with the Rudi Dornbusch and Leonid Hurwicz prices.

This year for the first time, our Master- and PhD-students who have written the best thesis are honoured with the price Rudi Dornbusch and the price Leonid Hurwicz, respectively. Carlos Galian Barrueco succesfully finished his Master in International Economics and was rewarded the price Rudi Dornbusch for his thesis entitled Targeting the Poor: Theory vs. Reality. His supervisor, Professor Jean-Louis Arcand, summarizes the rewarded thesis as follows:

"Carlos Galian received the Rudi Dornbusch Prize for his dissertation on the pitfalls of Proxy Means Testing (PMT), an econometric method used to identify poor households in developing countries. He found that size matters and that PMT could be beneficial with respect to random targeting when budgets are large enough, but the converse holds when budgets are small"
         

Dmitriy Skugarevskiy, who now holds a PhD in International Economics, received the price Leonid Hurwicz for his research on criminal law affects on decision-making and behaviour in the world’s second largest jurisdiction, Russia. By an amusing coincidence, Dr. Skugarevskiy's end of his PhD-track show some similarities to his first steps in the world of academics:

"I am humbled, honoured, and pleased to receive this award. When I was doing my Bachelor's in Economics, my very first class report was on Hurwicz's contributions to Economics (he received the Nobel that year). And here I am, receiving the award named after Hurwicz in a virtuous circle of events. I thank my advisor, Professor Arcand, the faculty of the Institute, my classmates, and colleagues for the stimulating atmosphere that made this thesis possible."

We congratulate both of our fellows for their remarkable success!

         

Carlos Galian Barrueco receives the Rudi Dornbusch prize