Remarks by Jose Luis Peydro

22 November 2021

Remarks by Jose Luis Peydro, Secretary of the Bernacer Prize Selection Committee at the virtual ceremony awarding the 20th edition of the German Bernacer Prize to Ralph Koijen

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

As secretary of the Bernacer Prize Selection Committee, let me start by congratulating Ralph Koijen on winning this year’s edition.

Regarding the Selection Committee, there have been some changes:

There have been four members that left after the previous edition of the prize:

  • One of them is Rafael Repullo, who acted as Secretary of the Committee for 3 years;
  • The others are Jordi Gali, Francesco Giavazzi and Charles Wyplosz, who have been involved in the selection of the prize winners in the past 19 editions (or 18 in the case of Jordi).

This year the selection committee has been composed by 10 members:

  • As Chair of the Committee, ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos
  • Olivier Blanchard, Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economy and Emeritus Professor at MIT
  • Charles Goodhart, Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics
  • Evi Pappa, Professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
  • Monika Piazzesi, Professor at Stanford University and Bernacer prize winner in the 5th Edition (2005)
  • Lucrezia Reichlin, Professor at the London Business School
  • Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé, Professor at Columbia University and Bernacer prize winner in the 4th Edition (2004)
  • Philipp Schnabl, Professor at NYU Stern
  • Anette Vissing-Jorgensen, Professor at University of California Berkeley
  • And myself, José Luis Peydró, Professor at Imperial College London and Universitat Pompeu Fabra

As members of the jury, we were all truly impressed at the quality and depth of the research of all the candidates. And, as in the previous years, there were two rounds of votes, as well as email and an online meeting discussion among all the members of the jury. We all thought that Professor Koijen’s “influential research on the pricing of risk in equity and insurance markets” was truly fascinating work and ideas, with important implications not only for academia but also for public policy and financial markets and intermediaries.
It is a great pleasure to announce that, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the prize, there is a new body to help strengthen further the prize in the year to come:

the German Bernacer Prize Advisory Board. It will become fully operational as from the next edition of the prize. Its current members are:

  • Alessandra Fogli (Economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Minneapolis)
  • Angel de la Fuente (Director of FEDEA)
  • Javier Gardeazabal (Professor at the University of Basque country)
  • Caterina Mendicino (Economist at the ECB)
  • Benoit Mojon (Head of Economic Analysis at the Bank of International Settlements)
  • Giles Mourre (Head of “Fiscal Policy and Surveillance” at the European Commission)

To end my intervention, let me congratulate again the winner, this time from all the members of the Selection Committee and members of the Advisory Board.