21. 10. 2020 opening remarks xix german bernacer prize ceremony at the banco de espana pablo hernandez de cos governor ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all, and to introduce this award ceremony for the 19th german bernacer prize. i would like to start by thanking luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank and chairman of the selection committee of this award, for his contribution to this initiative. luis, we are greatly honoured by your presence at this ceremony. let me also thank the observatory of the european central bank – chaired by guillermo de la dehesa – and the sponsors, represented here by luis isasi, president of banco santander espana. as you know, the prize is named after german bernacer, a prominent spanish macroeconomist with deep knowledge of monetary theory, who became head of the servicio de estudios of the banco de espana in 1930. the bernacer prize recognises outstanding scientific research by young economists under 40 from the euro zone, and our institution has been a strong supporter of this award since its inception in 2001. on this occasion, i am glad to congratulate the winner of the 19th prize edition, mr. loukas karabarbounis. he is a professor of economics at the university of minnesota, a consultant at the federal reserve bank of minneapolis and a research associate at the national bureau of economic research. he also serves as an associate editor at econometrica and as a member of the board of editors at the american economic review. he earned a ph. d. in economics from harvard university in 2010. prior to harvard, he received an undergraduate degree from the athens university of economics and business in greece. in addition to this bernacer prize he has received numerous honours and awards. these include a sloan research fellowship awarded by the alfred p. sloan foundation and the excellence award in global economic affairs, from kiel institute for the world economy. for those who know him he is a tireless worker and a perfectionist, who always dots his i ’ s and crosses his t ’ s. but he is also very approachable, a man of great humour and always very generous with his time. he combines a brilliant mind and outstanding organisational capacity with great didactic skills. one of his assets is how passionate he is about what he does, transmitting his knowledge and inspiring those around him. loukas karabarbounis

age population. growth will therefore depend, in part, on raising employment rates by increasing the flexibility of labour markets, bringing into the labour market sections of the population with relatively low participation rates ( especially women and older people ) and continuously upgrading the skills of the labour force. improving productivity growth should also be based on bolstering labour productivity. improving productivity requires first and foremost a modernisation of the business environment. policies in a number of areas could help here. the strengthening of competition in product markets can encourage innovation and the implementation of measures to reduce production costs. competition can be encouraged by removing barriers to business start - ups and reducing the complexity of the regulatory environment surrounding firms. productivity levels in business also depend on the efficiency of public administration. it is commonly agreed that inefficient staff allocation and the operational framework of public administration do not meet the requirements of the greek society and economy in an efficient manner, while reform proceeds at a relatively slow pace. in order to reap the full benefits of the introduction of information and communication technologies in public administration, training of personnel and upgrading administrative procedures are essential. creating the conditions in which economies of scale can be exploited is also important for improving productivity levels. in the past, the small scale of greek enterprises severely hindered their ability to exploit economies of scale. however, globalisation and the opening up of markets in the region have weakened this constraint. additionally, the creation of clusters of firms with similar activities can also help smaller companies benefit from economies of scale by cooperating in cost sharing, know - how transfer and specialisation of services and products. a second area which can contribute considerably to raising productivity is that of infrastructure. despite the progress made, there is ample room for improvements in the areas of both transport ( land, sea and air ) and network industries ( energy, water and communications ). finally, investment in both human and physical capital has an important role to play. with the opening up of new markets in the region, investment in physical capital has now become more attractive. of equal importance is investment in human capital through education and vocational training. whilst in greece the percentage of 20 - 24 year olds who have finished at least high school education is higher than in the eu - 15 countries ( 84. 1 %, compared with 76. 4 % ), the results of the pisa exams designed by the oecd to test knowledge and skills showed greek students performing much worse than students from the other eu - 15 countries. at the same time