2nd Economic Research Competition for students and PhD fellows
March 16, 2020
The Bank of Russia and the Russian Journal of Money and Finance invite students and PhD fellows to submit papers for the 2nd Economic Research Competition.
Macroeconomic models and their applications in central banking. General equilibrium models of the Russian economy.
The impact of unobservable variables and their estimates on monetary policy.
Monetary policy under model/scenario uncertainty.
Effectiveness of central banks’ communication policies and optimal information transparency.
The international monetary system and its implications for monetary policy in emerging markets.
Measuring underlying/monetary/pure inflation. Inflation forecasting. Production costs, markups, and producer/seller competition as inflation drivers. The microeconomics of inflation. Microdata-based/big data-based inflation analysis&forecasting.
External and internal drivers of inflation. Financial drivers of inflation. Inflation expectations and their role in understanding/forecasting inflation. Drivers of inflation expectations.
Global finance and systemic risks. Imbalances and capital flows. The global financial cycle and its effect on small open economies. The interrelation of the business and credit cycle.
The exchange rate as a shock absorber. Dollarization. External debt. Choosing the nominal currency of trade contracts.
Oil price movements and their effect on Russia’s price and financial stability.
The microeconomics of financial stability: the causes of debt overload and currency mismatches in balance sheets. Microeconomic decisions of households and their effect on financial stability.
Financial stability risks on industrial and regional levels.
Fiscal policy as a financial stability driver.
The interrelation of monetary and macroprudential policies. Monetary policy: 'Dilemma not Trilemma'. Optimal monetary and macroprudential policy.
Moral hazard and adverse selection in macroprudential policy.
The future of finance and financial stability implications (fintech and cryptocurrencies).
New data and financial stability research methods.
Optimal competition in the banking sector: major and minor banks.
Research on bank-level data.
Federal and regional banks.
Forecasting banks’ financial position.
The winners will be announced on 30 July 2020.
Competition jury
The competition winners will be invited to participate in the Bank of Russia Macroeconomics Summer School, the Bank of Russia International Conference, and the International Financial Congress held in 2021 in St Petersburg (travel and accommodation costs covered).
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of Russia had to cancel its plans for the International Financial Congress, the Summer Macroeconomics School and the International Research Conference, were set to take place in July 2020.
Submission topics
- Central bank’s policy
Macroeconomic models and their applications in central banking. General equilibrium models of the Russian economy.
The impact of unobservable variables and their estimates on monetary policy.
Monetary policy under model/scenario uncertainty.
Effectiveness of central banks’ communication policies and optimal information transparency.
The international monetary system and its implications for monetary policy in emerging markets.
- Inflation
Measuring underlying/monetary/pure inflation. Inflation forecasting. Production costs, markups, and producer/seller competition as inflation drivers. The microeconomics of inflation. Microdata-based/big data-based inflation analysis&forecasting.
External and internal drivers of inflation. Financial drivers of inflation. Inflation expectations and their role in understanding/forecasting inflation. Drivers of inflation expectations.
- Financial stability
Global finance and systemic risks. Imbalances and capital flows. The global financial cycle and its effect on small open economies. The interrelation of the business and credit cycle.
The exchange rate as a shock absorber. Dollarization. External debt. Choosing the nominal currency of trade contracts.
Oil price movements and their effect on Russia’s price and financial stability.
The microeconomics of financial stability: the causes of debt overload and currency mismatches in balance sheets. Microeconomic decisions of households and their effect on financial stability.
Financial stability risks on industrial and regional levels.
Fiscal policy as a financial stability driver.
The interrelation of monetary and macroprudential policies. Monetary policy: 'Dilemma not Trilemma'. Optimal monetary and macroprudential policy.
Moral hazard and adverse selection in macroprudential policy.
The future of finance and financial stability implications (fintech and cryptocurrencies).
New data and financial stability research methods.
- Banking
Optimal competition in the banking sector: major and minor banks.
Research on bank-level data.
Federal and regional banks.
Forecasting banks’ financial position.
- Data analysis: methodology and results
Key requirements for the research
- Applied research
With either a direct result (forecast, macroeconomic analysis model) or an indirect result (testing of economic hypotheses that are important for Central Bank policy).
- Meeting academic criteria
The research should include: clear objectives; a literature review and description of the study’s original contribution; a description of the mathematic or econometric model used and the decision quality criteria for the objective set by the author; a description of the statistical data used; a description of the results and a robustness check; and applied conclusions.
- The study should have been carried out no earlier than 2017. When carrying out the research, the author should have possessed a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, or else been working towards a PhD.
How to apply:
- To submit a paper in Russian or English, please send it to journal@mail.cbr.ru, putting “Application for 2020 Bank of Russia Research Competition for students and doctoral researchers” in the subject line. Give your full name, course of study, and educational institution.
- A cover letter, containing the research objective, the contribution made by the authors (the originality of the results when compared against specific existing studies), results, and conclusions.
Competition dates
The closing date for submission is 15 May 2020.The winners will be announced on 30 July 2020.
Competition jury
- Editors and the Editorial Board of the Russian Journal of Money and Finance;
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Researchers from the Research and Forecasting Department, the Monetary Policy Department, and the Financial Stability Department of the Bank of Russia.
Publication of research papers
The Russian Journal of Money and Finance will consider the winners’ papers for publication.The competition winners will be invited to participate in the Bank of Russia Macroeconomics Summer School, the Bank of Russia International Conference, and the International Financial Congress held in 2021 in St Petersburg (travel and accommodation costs covered).
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of Russia had to cancel its plans for the International Financial Congress, the Summer Macroeconomics School and the International Research Conference, were set to take place in July 2020.