Prizes
Every two years, the Banque de France awards its “Young PhD in Economics Prize, worth €3,000 (or €1,500 each in the case of two winners). In addition, two other young scholars receive a special distinction as nominees for the Prize.
The award aims to encourage original research conducted by young researchers affiliated with French doctoral schools on topics of interest to the Banque de France. It recognizes the best chapter of a PhD thesis in one of the following fields: money, banking, finance, macroeconomics, price and wage formation, growth, productivity and innovation, international economics, forecasting and macroeconomic modeling, climate change, and nature.
Eligibility and Submission (2026 Edition)
For 2026, theses defended in France between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025 are eligible. Candidates are invited to submit the best chapter of their thesis, typically the “Job Market Paper.”
The Prize will be awarded at a conference organized by the Banque de France. Winners will also meet with the Bank’s Executive Board.
The jury consists of three researchers from the Banque de France and three members of the Executive Committee of the Association Française de Science Économique (AFSE).
Applications must be sent to the AFSE secretariat by 1 February 2026, exclusively by email (with acknowledgment of receipt requested), and must include the following PDF documents:
- The selected thesis chapter;
- The pre-defense reports;
- The defense report;
- A summary of the thesis (a few pages) highlighting original, publishable results;
- A CV.
If applying for both the AFSE Prize and the Banque de France Prize, candidates must:
- Clearly indicate in the email subject line the name of the prize (“Prix Banque de France”);
- Submit a complete and separate application for each prize, as the juries are distinct.
Applications should be sent to: secretariatafse@gmail.com and afse@wanadoo.fr.
The 2026 Winners
In 2026, the Prize was jointly awarded to Antoine Hubert de Fraisse (London School of Economics) for “Crowding Out Long-Term Corporate Investment: The Role of Long-Term Government Debt Supply”, based on his doctoral dissertation defended at HEC Paris, and to Inès Mourelon (University of Bologna) for her article “Macroeconomic and Environmental Effects of Climate Policy Uncertainty: A Sectoral Reallocation Perspective”, based on her doctoral dissertation defended at Paris Dauphine University.
Cédric Crofils (University of Barcelona) received a special mention from the jury for his article “Weather Shocks, Agricultural Prices and Inflationary Pressures”, based on his doctoral dissertation defended at Paris-Dauphine University.
Antoine Hubert de Fraisse’s presentation
Inès Mourelon’s presentation
Cédric Crofils’ presentation
Previous Winners
In 2024, the Prize was awarded jointly to Pauline Carry (University of Chicago) for “The Effects of the Legal Minimum Working Time on Workers, Firms and the Labor Market” (thesis defended at Institut Polytechnique de Paris) and Noémie Pinardon-Touati (Columbia University) for “The Crowding Out Effect of Local Government Debt: Micro and Macro-Estimates” (thesis defended at HEC Paris). Maxime Bonelli received a nomination for the Young Doctor Prize.
The Banque de France is offering three €10,000 non-renewable doctoral grants to PhD students in economics entering their fourth year and holding an ATER or postdoctoral contract in France.
Two Grants for Female Doctoral Students
These grants aim to foster greater representation of women in academic economics, particularly in macroeconomics and finance. They are designed to support the completion of high-quality doctoral research in areas relevant to central banks, such as monetary economics, financial stability, inflation and wage dynamics, productivity and growth, international economics, and climate and biodiversity economics.
In addition to financial support (paid directly to the recipient), the program offers mentoring by Banque de France economists, access to Banque de France data, and short-term integration into a research team.
Applications should include a CV, cover letter describing the thesis work, a letter of recommendation from the supervisor, and the ATER or postdoctoral contract (if available).
Contact: Bourse_doctorantes@banque-france.fr
One Thematic Grant (m/f)
A third grant is open to all eligible doctoral students. It supports original research on priority themes, including central bank digital currency and digital assets, monetary policy transmission, fragmentation of trade and capital flows, European economic and financial security, artificial intelligence and macroeconomic performance, and climate change and biodiversity.
The grant includes financial support, access to Banque de France data, and short-term integration into a research team.
Applications should include a CV, cover letter outlining the relevance of the thesis to the priority themes, a letter of recommendation, and the ATER or postdoctoral contract (if available).
Contact: BOURSE_DE_THESE@banque-france.fr
Application deadline: 7 April 2026.
The full description of the call for applications is provided below. (lien vers le PDF Banque de France doctoral grants.pdf en PJ)
Previous Laureates
2025 :
Gemma Harris (PSE) works on heterogeneous-agent (HANK-type) models applied to the analysis of the effects of rising public debt on firm creation, under the supervision of Tobias Broer and Axelle Ferrière.
Mathilda Baret (University of Orléans) studies the effects of climate change, the availability of critical metals, and inflation, under the supervision of Camélia Turcu and Yannick Lucotte.
Yann Perdereau (PSE) applies heterogeneous-agent models to monetary policy, climate, and fiscal policy, under the supervision of Gilles Saint-Paul.
2024:
Mathilde Dufouleur is completing her PhD under the supervision of Fabien Tripier (Dauphine). She specializes in macroprudential analysis (non-performing loans) and banking economics.
Naomi Cohen studies risk sharing across euro area countries within a general equilibrium framework, with implications for the Capital Markets Union. Her dissertation is supervised by Xavier Ragot (Sciences Po and OFCE).
Pedram Pourabbasvafa, under the supervision of Olena Havrylchyk and Jean-Bernard Chatelain, conducts research on measuring inflation expectations using textual analysis methods applied to earnings call data. He was also awarded the second prize in the 2023 Bloc-notes Éco competition for his article entitled “Impact of Inflation on Green and Brown Firms and Implications for the Green Transition.”
Since 2011, the Banque de France and the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) have jointly awarded a series of prizes in monetary economics and finance. These prizes are granted by a joint jury that also includes external academic experts.
Every two years, the BDF-TSE Prize recognize researchers who have developed fundamental concepts that enhance our understanding of monetary economics, finance, and the banking system. The awards celebrate excellence in research that contributes to strengthening the analytical and policy frameworks of central banks.
For 2026, the jury of the BDF-TSE Prize for Distinguished Scholars, chaired by Agnès Bénassy-Quéré and Jean Tirole, awarded the prize to Veronica Guerrieri and Amit Seru.
2026 BDF-TSE Prize Jury
Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Second Deputy Governor, Banque de France
Jean Tirole, Honorary President of TSE and Nobel Laureate in Economics
Olivier de Bandt and Régis Breton (Banque de France)
Patrick Fève and Jean-Charles Rochet (TSE)
2026 Winners
Veronica Guerrieri
Presentation of her work
The jury recognized the outstanding contributions of Veronica Guerrieri, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. It particularly highlighted her work in macroeconomics, labor economics, financial frictions, and monetary policy analysis.
Her research has provided answers to some of the most important questions facing both the academic community and central banks: how financial crises can depress aggregate demand and drive economies to the effective lower bound on interest rates; whether the COVID-19 shock should be interpreted primarily as a demand shock or a supply shock; and how monetary policy should respond to relative price shocks arising from sectoral reallocations, fluctuations in energy prices, or supply-chain bottlenecks.
The jury emphasized the importance of two of her recent papers, both of which have had a major influence on the economics profession. The first, “Macroeconomic Implications of COVID-19: Can Negative Supply Shocks Cause Demand Shortages?”, published in the American Economic Review in 2022, highlights the complex interactions between supply and demand shocks, an issue that became particularly salient in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The second, “Credit Crises, Precautionary Savings, and the Liquidity Trap”, published in the Journal of Political Economy in 2017, analyzes the effects of a tightening of credit conditions on household spending in a framework with heterogeneous agents and incomplete markets. Such models have since assumed an increasingly prominent role in policy analysis and are now standard tools in both academic research and policy institutions.
More broadly, Veronica Guerrieri’s work has reshaped economists’ understanding of how information asymmetries and search frictions can subtly yet powerfully erode market liquidity and amplify financial stress. Her research has provided central bankers with a more precise theoretical framework for understanding why crises can escalate so rapidly. Her work on incomplete markets and financial frictions has uncovered often hidden vulnerabilities that monetary policy must confront, showing how seemingly modest changes in credit conditions can generate far-reaching effects well beyond those predicted by standard macroeconomic models.
The Prize recognizes her exceptional contributions to macroeconomics, financial frictions, and monetary policy analysis.
Veronica Guerrieri | Home Page
Seminar
Amit Seru
Presentation of his work
The Prize also recognized the outstanding contributions of Amit Seru, Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, for his research on finance, incentives within the financial system, and financial regulation.
Amit Seru Amit Seru’s work has addressed issues of central importance to both academic research and central banks: the impact of the rise of securitization on incentives and credit quality; the changing nature of financial intermediaries, including banks and non-bank institutions, and the implications for the effectiveness of prudential regulation and monetary policy; banks’ management of interest rate risk and its consequences for financial stability; as well as the role of the mortgage market.
The jury highlighted two of his major contributions. The first is “Did Securitization Lead to Lax Screening? Evidence from Subprime Loans”, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2010. This paper provided compelling evidence that, in the absence of an adequate regulatory framework, securitization weakens lenders’ incentives to rigorously assess borrower creditworthiness. These findings helped inform post-global financial crisis reforms of securitization regulation in both the United States and Europe.
The second contribution is “Fintech, Regulatory Arbitrage, and the Rise of Shadow Banks”, published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2018. This paper documents the growing role of non-bank financial intermediaries in U.S. mortgage lending and shows, using a theoretically grounded and empirically supported framework, that this development has been driven by both regulatory changes and technological progress. This issue is particularly relevant today, as central banks and regulatory authorities around the world assess the implications of new forms of financial intermediation for both efficiency and stability.
This line of research is extended in “Beyond the Balance Sheet Model of Banking: Implications for Bank Regulation and Monetary Policy”, published in the Journal of Political Economy in 2024, which shows that the rise of non-bank financial institutions and securitization alters the relative effectiveness of capital regulation and monetary policy in influencing credit growth.
The jury also highlighted Amit Seru’s more recent work on interest rate risk in the wake of the U.S. banking turmoil of March 2023. This research shows how the interaction between uninsured deposits and unrealized asset losses can generate a new form of self-fulfilling bank run.
More broadly, his research has deepened our understanding of the frictions and incentive mechanisms at work within the financial system. It provides essential quantitative evidence for analyzing how changes in the structure of the financial system affect financial stability, prudential regulation, and the transmission of monetary policy.
Since 2018, the Banque de France has awarded an annual Prize for Young Researchers in Green Finance, providing financial support of €3,000 to promote academic research in green finance.
The Prize reflects the Bank’s commitment to advancing research on the role of finance in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. In line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, it supports work that improves our understanding of climate-related financial risks and the financing of the transition to a low-carbon economy. The initiative complements the Banque de France’s broader engagement in sustainable finance, including its role in launching the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS).
Eligibility
Applicants must conduct research in green finance, be affiliated with a French academic institution, and either hold a PhD (ideally under 40) or be a PhD candidate with a scheduled defense.
Research Topics
Eligible projects may be theoretical or empirical and focus on climate-related financial risks, green financial products, macroeconomic modeling of climate impacts, the role of central banks, or the interaction between monetary policy and climate change.
Selection Committee
The Prize is awarded by a selection committee composed of internationally recognized scholars in climate finance and related fields.
- Alain Naef (ESSEC Business School)
- Isis Durrmeyer (Toulouse School of Economics)
- Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline (Paris School of Economics)
- Olivier David Zerbib (ENSAE Paris)
- Peter Tankov (ILB & ENSAE)
- Galina Hale (UC Santa Cruz)
- Ben Caldecott (University of Oxford)
- Gauthier Vermandel (École Polytechnique)
To apply for the 8th edition of the Young Researchers in Green Finance Prize, click here.