NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Central Bank on Wednesday announced the results of this year’s T Baswell Donaldson Research Competition. The independent panel of judges, the Assessment Committee, recommended the award of the T Baswell Memorial Prize to Tristan Christie of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova, Scotia Canada, for his paper “The Effectiveness of Government Expenditure on Education and Its Potential to Influence Economic Growth in the Caribbean: A Comparative Study for The Bahamas”.
This year, the Central Bank received some 48 research submissions for the T Baswell Memorial Prize, the largest number of entries ever received. The submissions were reviewed and adjudicated by a panel of economists and university economic lecturers. The award is only given if the Assessment Committee deems that an entry meets the epitome of academic rigor expected of university level research, and the relevance criteria for the Bahamian economy. The committee remarked that a number of the research papers showed considerable promise, with the aforementioned entry rising to the required standard that would merit the award of the ultimate prize.
Christie was awarded $20,000 as the winner. David Allens of Toronto University was also awarded $5,000 and received Honourable Mention for his research work on “Sustainable Urban Spaces”.
The Central Bank encourages students to continue to improve their research techniques and methods, and to take full advantage of the support of faculty advisors and peers to refine their work. The bank has begun to prepare for the 2022 T Baswell Donaldson Research Competition and will expand its initiative to identify prize recipients.
The T Baswell Memorial Prize and the accompanying Memorial Lecture are aimed at recognizing Bahamian university students who produced outstanding research on topics of policy or other applied relevance to the Bahamian economy. The research must satisfy rigorous academic standards and focus on business, economics, finance, banking or other related subjects of relevance to the Bahamian economy. The winner of this year’s prize will be invited to present on their research, which will be open to the general public.