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Master's Thesis Awarded the Norbert Kloten Prize 2026 [28.03.26]
A student from our International Business and Economics program has been recognized with the prestigious Norbert Kloten Prize for this quantitative analysis of the EU-MERCOSUR free trade agreement in his Master's thesis
We are delighted to announce that Ricardo Avecedo Arias has been awarded the Norbert Kloten Prize by the Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW) and Bundesbank Regional Office in Baden-Württemberg as a joint prize winner for his Master's thesis entitled "The Welfare, Trade and Emissions Effects of the EU–MERCOSUR Trade Agreement: A Quantitative Analysis".
Written in early spring 2025, the thesis addresses a highly policy-relevant question at the intersection of international trade and environmental economics: What are the quantifiable effects of the planned EU–MERCOSUR free trade agreement on welfare, trade flows, and — innovatively for the trade literature — on CO₂ emissions?
The thesis employs an emissions-augmented quantitative trade model and combines datasets from multiple international organizations and research institutions. The result is a methodologically rigorous and genuinely novel contribution to the field of quantitative trade economics.
Matthias Fauth's dedicated guidance was instrumental in the development of this outstanding work.
The award was presented at a celebratory event organised by the IAW and the Bundesbank Regional Office in Baden-Württemberg.
