The Central Bank of Estonia has awarded its doctoral research prize to Milen Arro-Cannarsa for research on monetary policy in an open economy and shared its master’s prize among four researchers. The doctoral prize carries EUR 3,000, while the EUR 2,000 master’s award was divided equally, giving each winner EUR 500. Arro-Cannarsa extended a macroeconomic model to examine how international demand for secure assets affects the economy and how central bank balance sheets can mitigate adverse effects. Using Swiss data, her research proposes monetary policy options when interest rates cannot be cut further. In the master’s category, Igor Mohhov examined how banks’ selection of data for credit risk assessments can affect lending, the credit cycle and financial stability, providing findings relevant to macroprudential supervision. The other master’s winners examined housing, green technology and heating subsidies. Heli Song found that homeownership increases life satisfaction in the United Kingdom, using an econometric approach to assess its causal impact. Jiahao Zhu found that adopting green technology raises productivity at Estonian companies, with gains increasing over time. Asko Tamm estimated that investment support for district heating from the Environmental Investment Centre reduced the marginal price of district heating by an average of 5–7%, with the effect appearing after a lag of two years.
Central Bank of Estonia awards monetary policy research and splits master’s prize among four winners
The Central Bank of Estonia awarded its doctoral research prize to Milen Arro-Cannarsa and divided its master’s prize among four researchers. Arro-Cannarsa’s study explores how central bank balance sheets can counter adverse effects from international demand for secure assets when interest rates cannot be cut further. The master’s research covered bank credit risk, homeownership, green technology and heating subsidies, with the latter estimated to reduce marginal district heating prices by an average of 5–7% after a lag of two years.