If the topic is young economic talent, you’ve got CERGE-EI’s attention. There is nothing that this institution cares about more than encouraging and nurturing the brilliant young minds who will be the next generation of academics, business leaders, and policy makers. Many of these talented young students constitute our impressive and diverse student body. They come here smart, they leave here much smarter, and they continue on after their studies to help change the world.

But while we know that there are budding economists all over the world, it’s not always so easy to find them. CERGE-EI’s New Economic Talent Competition, launched for the first time this winter, intends to help make locating them a little bit easier. NET invited undergraduate students world-wide to submit for competition their independent research papers on an economic subject. CERGE-EI was delighted to receive submissions from nearly 25 countries, and the quality of the research was impressive to say the least.

Submissions were evaluated and ranked by a committee of CERGE-EI visiting scholars. After much deliberation, three finalists were invited to Prague to present their final paper. Then on Saturday 31st May all the finalists were invited to attend the CERGE-EI Graduation Gala where the results were announced by Prof. Jan Švejnar, the ‘Founding Father’ of CERGE-EI.

And the winner is… Justin Grider, with his paper ‘Wheelchairs and Income: An Impact Evaluation of Wheelchair Allocation in Ethiopia.‘ Justin received $1,000 USD, generously donated by Nadace CERGE-EI foundation, and he dined alongside VIP guests at the Gala. He will also receive an invitation to the Global Development Network Conference in 2015 to present his paper (his travel costs and accommodation will be covered) and a VIP ticket to the next Distinguished Speaker Series at CERGE-EI.

We would like to wish our congratulations to all three finalists for their participation and impressive submissions. These young men and women are representatives of the new economic talent of their generation. We look forward to the submissions for the 2nd NET competition in spring 2015!

Learn more about the competition and read the winning paper abstract here.