Month: May 2026

To promote the research and analysis of Latvia’s and euro area’s macroeconomic issues by involving the most talented young economists in this work, Latvijas Banka has announced the annual Competition of Student Scientific Research Papers.

Most awarded papers are usually students’ bachelor’s and master’s theses covering topics concerning the Baltic or the euro area economies. See the bottom of this page for the full list of topics.

Submission of papers is open until 31 May 2025. The authors of the winning paper are awarded EUR 2500 and the total prize pot exceeds EUR 9000. 

Latvijas Banka organises the competition already for the 24rd time. Participation is open to citizens and non-citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as well as foreigners who at the time of the competition are registered as students of higher education institutions accredited in the Baltic States, enrolled in Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programmes, as well as to the students of the Baltic States studying abroad.

Visit this page for more information.

Please be invited to the upcoming Latvijas Banka’s Research seminar, to take place on 23 July 10:30-12:00, in which David Burgherr  (University of Zurich) will present his work: Saving Responses to Mandatory and Voluntary Pension Contributions

MS Teams link

Abstract. To boost retirement savings, many countries mandate worker contributions to pension accounts. This paper investigates saving responses to such mandates throughout the entire portfolio, leveraging detailed administrative tax data from Switzerland and a regression discontinuity design. I find that mandatory pension plans have limited effects on total savings, with an estimated crowd-out rate of 94%. Decomposing the saving response, I show that workers offset mandatory pension contributions by reducing private non-retirement savings, primarily in financial assets. By contrast, there is no substitution between mandatory and voluntary pension savings. Liquidity-constrained workers are less able to reduce private savings in response to mandatory contributions and therefore increase their total savings.

Please be invited to the upcoming Latvijas Banka’s Research seminar, to take place on 8 July 10:00-11:30, in which Tobias König (University of Bonn) will present his work: Wholesale Funding Crises Since 1800

MS Teams link

Please be invited to the upcoming Latvijas Banka’s Research seminar, to take place on 2 July 10:30-12:00, in which Alejandra Inzunza (Bocconi University, Central Bank of Chile) will present her work: The Chilean Pension Withdrawals and the 2025 Reform: Fiscal and Retirement Consequences?

MS Teams link

Abstract. During the COVID 19 pandemic, Chile approved three exceptional laws that allowed workers to withdraw part of their pension accounts. These withdrawals were exceptionally large by international standards. The withdrawals reached around 20% of GDP and depleted the contributory balances of millions of affiliates. Using administrative withdrawal records matched to the 2021 Chilean Household Finance Survey, we estimate that the withdrawals reduced contributory pensions by about 21% on average. The expansion of non contributory pensions in 2022 cushioned the loss in total retirement income to about 8%, although with significant fiscal costs. The Chilean pension reform of 2025 increased the future contribution rate. Our simulations show that this reduces the estimated fiscal burden from 15.8% to about 12.4% of GDP. Future policies such as increasing the retirement age could further lower this cost.