VSE student Hugo Jales has won a prize for the best student paper at the first annual conference of the International Association for Applied Econometrics (IAAE), presented recently in London, England. Hugo’s paper was selected out of almost 100 papers.

VSE student Hugo Jales with the IAAE Award Certificate for Best Student Paper

“I am honoured to receive an award at the IAAE-2014. I see it as recognition for my diligent work over the last few years,” says Hugo. “A lot of credit belongs to my committee members Thomas Lemieux, Nicole Fortin, David Green and Vadim Marmer, VSE faculty to whom I am grateful.”

Hugo’s paper investigates how the minimum wage affects developing economies, and shows how to measure these effects from data. His estimates show that the minimum wage generates sizable unemployment for low wage workers, increases the size of the informal sector, and reduces the amount of labor taxes collected by the government.

Congratulations Hugo!