The European economy and its prospects is the main theme of the scientific conference, organized on 22 November 2013 by the University of Finance and Administration on the occasion of the fourth Professor Vencovský Awards for young economists under 35 years of age. The keynote speaker was prof. Václav Klaus who then conducted the panel discussion. Other speakers were Miroslav Singer (CNB Governor), Petr Zahradnik (principal analyst, Conseq) and Martin Tlapa (Deputy Secretary of State for European Affairs). Apart from European economy prospects, the discussion focused on the position of individual national economies and the future of the euro.
In his report Professor Klaus pointed out that there is a long-term progressive deterioration of the economic position of the EU countries to which the formation and functioning of the Eurozone has contributed significantly. In this context, he spoke about the lost decade in the development of Europe.
The conference was held under the auspices of the CNB Governor Miroslav Singer.
The conference theme always copies the focus of the competition; this year the young researchers focused on the European economy in its perspective, with emphasis on the area of monetary and financial theory, financial markets and their stability and economic and social policy.
The first prize of CZK 200,000 was (for the third time in the history of the Awards) shared by
Mgr. Barbara Pertold-Gebicka, M.A., Ph.D. (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University) for her work Job Market Polarization and Employment Protection in Europe,
and Ing. Tomáš Konečný, M.A. et M.A., Ph.D. (Czech National Bank) for his work Linkages Between the Financial and Real Sectors Across Interest Rate Regimes: The Case of the Czech Republic.
For the first time in the history of the competition the first prize had gone to a woman. It was for the first time that the keynote speaker had been a Czech economist. 13 papers entered the competition this year, most of them were of high quality, according to Jan Frait (CNB), member of the Nomination Committee. Five papers got an award, they focused on the following topics: labour market, effects of taxation, price convergence, linkages between the real and financial sectors, systemic risk and debt crisis.
The prize is awarded biannually, the following Prof.Vencovský Awards will be announced in 2015.
