The Eesti Pank research award for doctoral studies went to Nataliia Ostapenko for her work on the effect of exogenous monetary policy shock on economic activity and inflation. The award in the Masters category went to Cayo Augusto Raduy Koslyk, who researched the impact of technology news on the business cycle in the USA.

Nataliia Ostapenko’s work Identification of the monetary policy shocks from the Federal Reserve surprises was noted particularly for its innovations in data compilation and analytical methods, and for how thoroughly it covered its topic. Information on unexpected interest rate changes was collected from the minutes of meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the US Federal Reserve and was analysed using neural networks.

The strength of Caio Augusto Raduy Koslyk’s Masters-level work News-driven business cycles: A narrative approach was also in its innovative methodology, which was based on a frequency index for technology news.

The Eesti Pank research award in memory of Urmas Sepp is being granted for the 17th time in 2019. The aim of the award is to publicise outstanding research work, encourage research in economics, and reward high-level studies. Since 2011 the award has been granted in two categories, one for research leading to a PhD thesis or done as part of doctoral studies, and the other for research leading to a Master’s dissertation or done as part of a Master’s course.

Urmas Sepp (1956–2002) was the head of the Eesti Pank macroeconomics department, later the economic research department.

For further information:
Eva Vahur
Eesti Pank
668 0965
Email: eva.vahur@eestipank.ee