Excellence Awards in Global Economic Affairs 2019

22 Jun 2019

Three young economists based in Europe and the United States received this year’s Excellence Awards in Global Economic Affairs from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Created to promote young talent, the Excellence Awards are open to researchers and academics up to 35 years of age.

The winners for 2019 are:

  •  Xavier Jaravel (London School of Economics) for his contributions to the field of Innovation and Inequality. Jaravel´s findings include evidence that product innovations do not benefit all households equally, but rather disproportionately benefit high income households. In another contribution Jaravel shows that policies that increase exposure to innovation may have greater potential to spur innovation than traditional policies such as reducing tax rates.
  • Joseph Shapiro (University of California at Berkeley) for his contributions to the field of Environment and Trade. In one recent research project Shapiro identifies and documents an environmental bias of trade policy – the implicit subsidy to CO2 emissions in internationally traded products.  Shapiro shows that reducing this bias would contribute to lower global CO2 emissions without hurting global income.  
  • Alexander Wolitzky (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for his contributions to the field of Social Learning, Public Policy and Institutions.  Wolitzky´s key findings include a general rationale for the scarcity of cost-saving innovations; and the rule under which capital taxation is progressive or U-shaped under political constraints.

 

Each of the three winners will be awarded a Research Fellowship at the Kiel Institute funded through separate scholarship programs (Horst Siebert Fellowship, Porsche Fellowship, and Landeshauptstadt Kiel Fellowship). As Research Fellows, the young economists will receive content-related and organizational support from a number of prominent researchers as well as the opportunity to participate in research projects at the Kiel Institute. The aim of the Kiel Institute’s Excellence Awards in Global Economic Affairs is to build an international community of young economic researchers. The Excellence Awards have been presented annually since 2007.

The award ceremony took place on Saturday, June 22, 2019 in the context of the events for the Global Economy Prize.