The EEA Council, in its meeting in Glasgow 2010, agreed unanimously to institute a prize to a European-based female economist who has made a significant contribution to the Economics profession.  In October 2011, after having spent over 12 months working on the particulars of the award, the EEA President, Christopher Pissarides officially announced the award. 

The award is to be named after Birgit Grodal, who was the first female elected President of the EEA, but sadly passed away before she was due to take up her presidency.  The Birgit Grodal Award will be bestowed every even year and the first three editions will be sponsored by the Danmarks Nationalbank. 

The selection committee, composed of five members, asks all EEA members for nominations.  The Committee then discusses the nominations put forward by EEA members and makes a short-list.  In Spring of each year in which the award is given, the Committee proposes one candidates for the award to the EEA Executive Committee.  The selection committee also informs the EEA Executive Committee of how the decision was reached, the motivation for the nominated candidates, as well as a list of any other candidates that were considered during the last stages of the process as potential winners of the award.  The EEA Executive Committee then endorses the proposal of award winner.  If for some reason the proposed winner is not endorsed, the EEA Executive Committee asks the selection committee to reconsider its proposal.  The winner is announced immediately after the endorsement.  The announcement is posted on EEA website.

The first Birgit Grodal Award Committee is composed of Jean Tirole (Chair), Francine Blau, Per Krusell, Valerie Ramey, Christian Schultz.

The First Birgit Grodal Award Winner

The EEA is delighted to announce that Hélène Rey of London Business School has won the first ever Birgit Grodal Award.

Hélène Rey has made pioneering contributions to our understanding of international finance. In a seminal contribution, she demonstrated that looking at a country’s asset positions helps predict current-account adjustments and applied this insight to the case of the United States. Unlike emerging economies, the latter has large assets positions in foreign currency and liabilities in dollars, making the country richer when it devalues. Another key research line of hers stressed the importance of transaction costs in the trade in goods and assets and their impact on the economy. Applications of this coherent body of research include the slow adjustment of exchange rates toward purchasing power parity, the home bias puzzle in international portfolio allocation, and the possibility of sudden stops in trade and capital flows. Finally Hélène Rey has been much involved in the public policy debate, most recently through her analysis of the international monetary system.  She is a most worthy recipient of the inaugural Birgit Grodal award.

The EEA is pleased to be rewarding such a talented individual and the Association warmly congratulates the winner.

Hélène was presented with her award before the Marshall lecture that took place on the evening of Wednesday August 29 during the annual EEA Congress to be held in Màlaga, Spain.

Hélène Rey accepting the Birgit Grodal Award