Double Honour Student Shaheen Seedat adds another award to his trophy cabinet this week as he is awarded best Economic Honours Thesis in the country from the Economic Society of South Africa (ESSA).
The School of Economics and Business won another award in the Masters Category; Professor Kenneth Creamer was awarded the Founders Medal for his dissertation.
The Founders Medal is awarded each year to the candidate with the best essay submitted by a university.
The essay for the honours category has to be 6000 words long and both analytical and logical. Each university is allowed to submit one student’s work per category.
Seedat won a bronze medal for his thesis titled Asset Price Bubble: Extension to Continuous- Time Spaces and General Classes of Dividend Payments. He explains that his “thesis proves that all types of financial assets (whether they are corporate bonds, stocks, houses, short-term assets etc) can suffer a ‘price bubble’ and an eventual steep decline in price. It provides a theoretic explanation for the events we have recently observed in the global financial crisis”
Prof. Creamer was awarded a silver medal for his short dissertation titled, Price setting conduct in South Africa 2002 to 2007: Implications for Monetary Policy. Creamer said he used over 5 million price records form Stats SA to established price setting conduct. His findings suggest that “based on such conduct, the interest rates policy of the SA Reserve Bank should be less aggressive and more persistent than existing macroeconomic models imply”.
According to Associate Professor at the School, Neil Rankin, the school of economics has won twice in different categories in the past. The 2009 Founders medal for master’s dissertation went to Witsie Maria Fatima Fiandeiro for her dissertation titled, Trade liberalisation and wages in South Africa.
ESSA is a society that “promotes the discussion of and research into economic matters, in particular those affecting South Africa.”According to their website, the society has been established in 1925 and they boast members that have played leading roles in government, business world as well as academia. The winners each receive a medal as well as cash prizes.
