CEPR Research Fellows John Van Reenen and Fabrizio Zilibotti have been awarded been awarded the Yrjö Jahnsson Award for 2009. Van Reenen is Director of the Centre for Economic Performance and Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. Zilibotti is Professor of Macroeconomics and Political Economy at the University of Zurich.

The prize is awarded every second year by the Finnish Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation and the European Economic Association to the best economist(s) under the age of 45 “who has made a contribution that is significant to economics in Europe”. The prize is the most prestigious award in European economics.

Announcing the award, the Foundation and the EEA noted that

“John Van Reenen and Fabrizio Zilibotti, both on their own and in joint work, have made several important contributions to the analysis of technological innovation and its link with economic growth and labour market phenomena.”

“The work of van Reenen and Zilibotti addresses very relevant questions, with rich policy implications, using a diversity of research styles and methods, but always with the highest standards of rigour and excellence.”

“John van Reenen has made several contributions to the empirical analysis of labour markets, competition policy and industrial economics, especially in areas relating to productivity growth, management practices, R&D, intellectual property, and investment decisions. He has also done pioneering work on the organizational structure of the firm and its relation to innovation, contributing both with empirical evidence and measurement tools.”

“Fabrizio Zilibotti has made important contributions to macroeconomics, political economics and labour economics. In particular, he has greatly improved our understanding of how technological innovation affects economic growth at different stages of economic development. He also contributed to the positive analysis of the welfare state, explaining how economic and political forces interact to shape government redistribution.”

Read the LSE press release (http://rlab.lse.ac.uk/_new/news/default.asp)

Read the University of Zurich press release (http://www.iew.uzh.ch/news/news/yjaward/Pressrelease_270809.pdf)