2023-05-10
Four students from Orléans University won the 2nd CEFER Challenge last Friday, an annual thematic competition encouraging students to learn and think outside the box on issues related to the euro area macroeconomy, the Eurosystem, and the implementation of monetary policy. The team, from Orléans France, included Maxime Moreau, Quentin Weber, Samuel Borges, and Elliot Lafois. The team received helpful guidance from Dr. Yannick Lucotte and Pauline Avril.
This year's event received almost double the amount of submissions compared to last year: 49 students from several EEA member states and the United Kingdom submitted video presentations on the 7th of April, 2023. This year's topic encourages students to explore the drivers and consequences of the current high inflation in the euro area, specifically focusing on the policy implications for central bankers and financial regulators.
Six finalist teams participated in question-and-answer sessions held on the 28th of April, 2023. Each team delivered a 15min presentation, then a 15min question-and-answer reviewed by the jury to determine the winners. Three Austrian students from the Vienna University of Economics and Business won second place, and the honorable mentions went to three students from the University of Edinburgh, UK.
"You are all winners," said Bank of Lithuania Board Member Simonas Krėpšta. "The most important thing is that you learned something during this process. You should all be proud of yourselves." The director at CEFER, Aurelija Proškutė, said during the winner announcement, "Thank you all for your participation. I hope that some of you will consider the internships during the summer, and I hope this is just the beginning of our joint effort to promote research in policy making (sic)."
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"I'd like to thank the CEFER for organizing this event. This is a great opportunity for all of us. It was a great experience and a first step to research for all of us (sic)." said one of the winning team members this year. A student from the runner-up team added, "This is a really fun opportunity for us to start to work with interesting data and to develop new quantitative skills (sic)."
Teams were evaluated on their economic analysis, responses to judges' questions, teamwork, and presentation. The judges for the final round of the competition were: Simonas Krėpšta, Board Member of the Bank of Lithuania; Aurelija Proškutė, Director of CEFER and the Applied Macro Research Division at the Bank of Lithuania; Džordana Kariniauskaitė, representing Nasdaq.
For media inquiries, email tl.bl@egnellahcrefec or call +370 610 44921.