Three candidates were awarded, Thursday in Rabat, during the award ceremony of the first edition of the Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) Prize for economic and financial research “which was held under the chairmanship of the Wali of BAM , Abdellatif Jouahri.
These are the Award of Excellence awarded to Mrs Ilhame Lagrine, for her research work “Sudden Stops Crises across countries and decades”, the Encouragement Award, awarded to Mrs Salma Slimani, for her work in research “The effects of budgetary and monetary shocks on the Moroccan economy: Estimation of a DSGE model”, and the Coup de coeur prize, awarded to Mr. Ahmed Stitou, for his research work “Banking, Currency and Optimal rate of compulsory reserves”.
Ms. Lagrine’s work was carried out as part of her doctoral thesis defended at the University of Rennes I, that of Ms. Slimani was carried out as part of her doctoral thesis defended at the University Mohammed V Rabat, then that Mr. Stitou’s work was carried out as part of his doctoral thesis defended at the University of Paris II: Panthéon – Assas.
Speaking at this ceremony, Mr. Jouahri, stressed that “this initiative is part of our strategy of openness and cooperation with the academic world that we have implemented in recent years with passion and determination”.
It is also part of the Bank’s CSR policy, which embodies its ethical values and reaffirms its commitment and contribution to the objectives of sustainable development, he added, noting that through this distinction, the Banque thus wishes to reward not only the work carried out by young researchers but also to promote the laboratories and research centers in which they carried out their doctoral theses.
In this sense, Mr Jouahri highlighted the important role played by the community of researchers, whose work brings rigor and objectivity to the debates, opens up new fields of investigation and inspires analyzes and the actions of decision-makers, in the context of the profound changes that the world is going through, in particular in connection with climate change, geopolitical fragmentation and digital transformation.
Returning to the selection process, which was carried out in three stages, the Wali of BAM specified that a first preselection was made on the basis of criteria relating to the interest of the theme, the originality of the methodology of approach and the relevance of the results, then an analysis of the content of the 20 pre-selected works gave rise to a shortlist of five candidates.
Finally, he maintained, the Jury of the prize, composed of the general manager of BAM and high-level personalities, selected the winners of the Prize on the basis of the evaluations of the Reading Committee and the presentations made by the invited candidates. to an internal workshop organized for this purpose last February.
For this first edition, 49 contributions were received following the launch of the call for applications in July 2022, open to young Moroccan researchers who have defended their doctoral theses in economics or finance in Moroccan or foreign higher education establishments.
As part of the guidelines of the Bank’s CSR policy, this Prize aims to support research in areas related to BAM’s missions, to strengthen synergies with the academic world and to contribute to the influence of economic research and the development of the research ecosystem on a national scale.
