NASADAQ OMX Riga Announces the Winners of the Competition of Bachelor and Master Theses 2011

02.02.2012 RIG

At Baltic Market Awards ceremony, which took place on January 26, NASDAQ OMX Riga announced the winners of the 2011 competition of bachelors and masters theses. The research papers on the topic of the Latvian and Baltic securities market and corporate governance presented by the winners gained the most of the points from behalf of Jury. 

1st place and 1000 EUR were awarded to Daiga Grūbe, student of University of Latvia, Social Sciences Faculty. Her Master thesis in corporate governance in state-owned companies entitled „Clientelism and Nepotism in state owned companies” (written in Latvian) gained the most of the points for the innovative topic in the contest, practical value and quality of analysis. 

2nd pace was awarded to the students of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Karolis Čekauskas and Vytautas Liatukas for their Bachelor thesis “Behavioural Biases of the Disposition Effect and Overconfidence and their Impact on the Estonian Stock Market” (written in English). 

3^rd place was awarded to the student of Riga Business School Jānis Praņēvicš for his Master thesis “Business development strategy of the NASDAQ OMX Riga” (written in English).

The competition takes place already for the 6^th time and aims at promoting better knowledge on how stock market functions as well as raising awareness of the students on the importance of the stock market in the economic development of the state and alternative financing opportunities for the companies. 

Competition is organized in close collaboration with Latvian universities, colleges, and market professionals. This year the research papers entered for the contest were evaluated by: Liene Dubava, Board Member of NASDAQ OMX Riga and Chairman of the Jury; Nataļja Lāce, Professor, Riga Technical University; Nataļja Točelovska, Head of Brokerage and Securities Issuance, SEB Bank; Raivis Lucijanovs, lecturer of the Riga Business School, and Jūlija Bistrova, Chairman of the management board at “CE Services” and also the holder of the main prise of the thesis contest back in 2008. 

“This year the competition was somehow different for many reasons. First of all, we received twice as much student works as in previous years. All together we registered 15 different works written in 7 different universities. It clearly indicates that the awareness and overall interest about the stock market has risen in last year. Secondly, all members of the jury admitted that the quality of the research projects this year were notably higher, which made the process of judging more challenging and interesting, and works – worth to be published. And finally, this year we have introduced additional category for the competition. As issues of corporate governance have hit the spot-light in many ways, from now on we will be accepting thesis addressing various questions of corporate governance for the competition. We truly hope that the work of Daiga Grūbe will inspire others to follow her example and engage in academic research and debate on corporate governance”, says Liene Dubava, Board Member of NASDAQ OMX Riga and Chairman of the competition jury. 

Please find more at the web-page of NASDAQ OMX Riga. 

About NASDAQ OMX

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world’s largest exchange company. It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with more than 3,500 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions to companies around the globe, including its U.S. listings market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX First North, and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. For more information about NASDAQ OMX, visit http://www.nasdaqomx.com. Please follow NASDAQ OMX on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx).

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