Professor Sangeeta Pratap of the Economics Department has been awarded the Banamex Prize, Mexico’s most distinguished award for Economics. Established in 1951, this annual prize, administered by the Banco Nacional de Mexico, a leading commercial bank recognizes research that relates to the analysis and solution of economic problems in Mexico.
Professor Pratap’s work “Credit, Misallocation and Productivity Growth”, along with colleagues Carlos Urrutia and Felipe Meza of ITAM in Mexico, analyzes the linkages between the cost and availability of credit and the efficiency of different sectors in the economy. The authors find that despite a macroeconomic credit crunch, it is possible to improve growth in an economy by reallocating scarce credit towards the sectors of the economy that are capable of improving their use of resources and thus raise productivity.
The jury for this prize includes the governor of the Central Bank of Mexico, the Finance Minister, the Minister for Economic Affairs, along with representatives of several major Mexican Universities. The prize will be awarded in Mexico City by the Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade on December 13.
