Researcher from the University of Bonn Receives 2013 ZEW Research Award

Patrick Hürtgen from the University of Bonn received the 2013 Heinz König Young Scholar Award of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. ZEW honours Hürtgen’s research on the relationship between current account deficits and budget deficits. Against the backdrop of the on-going crisis in Europe, such analyses are gaining particular relevance.

The annual Heinz König Young Scholar Award of ZEW comes with an endowment of 5,000 euros and includes the opportunity to spend an extended research visit at ZEW. This year’s award was sponsored by Dr. Fridolin Scheuerle, member of the ZEW Sponsors’ Association for Science and Practice.

In the current crisis, high current account deficits and budget deficits frequently coincide. The awarded paper by Patrick Hürtgen (written in cooperation with Ronald Rühmkorf, University of Bonn) contains empirical evidence that the correlation between current account deficits and budget deficits depends on the level of debt. If the government-debt-to-GDP-ratio is below 83 per cent, current account deficits and budget deficits are positively correlated, i.e., they increase or decrease similarly. If the debt ratio ranges above this value, however, a connection between current account deficits and budget deficits can no longer be identified.

The Heinz König Young Scholar Award is named after the late founding director of ZEW, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinz König, who died in 2002. The award recognises excellent empirical papers by up-and-coming researchers. In keeping with Heinz König’s ideas, ZEW has no intention of adding yet another award to the multitude of prizes for established researchers, but instead promotes talented economists in the early stages of their career.

The Heinz König Young Scholar Award was presented at the 2013 ZEW Summer Workshop. This year’s workshop focussed on current challenges to fiscal policy in Europe and was funded by the Monetary Stability Foundation. The objective of the workshop is to qualify up-and-coming researchers. In a rigorous selection procedure, the best papers are selected for presentation out of a large number of submissions. This year, 15 researchers were invited to ZEW. At the summer workshop they had the opportunity to discuss their research findings with other talented researchers and renowned economists. Ruud de Mooij from the International Monetary Fund and Roel Beetsma from the University of Amsterdam were invited as keynote speakers of the 2013 ZEW Summer Workshop.

For more information please contact

Florian Misch, Phone +49 621/1235-394, E-mail misch@zew.de