A paper exploring links between international trade and immigration authored by Andreas Hatzigeorgiou, a 2008 Ford School Master of Public Policy graduate, has been selected as the 2008 recipient of the Ohlin Prize. The Ohlin Prize, created to honor 1977 Nobel Prize winner in Economics Bertil Ohlin, has been awarded annually to an advanced graduate student paper in the social sciences since 1993.
Andreas developed his paper while studying at the University of Michigan. The research first was presented at the inaugural Ford School Gramlich Showcase of Student Work. He cites the Gramlich Showcase experience, the guidance of Ford School faculty, including Associate Dean Alan Deardorff, and the direction of University of Michigan Economics Professor Dean Yang as critical to the recognition the paper has received. After graduating from the Ford School, Andreas continued work on his research and the paper at Lund University in Sweden, where a professor submitted it for Ohlin Prize consideration.
"It is a great honor to have been awarded the prize," Andreas said. "In the paper I show a strong and positive relationship between bilateral migration stocks and trade flows, which is interesting with the context of trade policy as labor market regulation and migration policy. My results suggest that migrants can facilitate trade between their country of birth and their country of residence by lowering trade transactions costs, mainly through the information channel." The award was officially announced Dec. 4 in Stockholm, Sweden.