Central Bank Award Rodrigo Gómez

Call for papers 2021

In order to honor the memory of Rodrigo Gómez (1897-1970), General Manager of Banco de México (1952-1970), the governors of the Latin American central banks established the Central Bank Award “Rodrigo Gómez” to encourage research in areas of interest for central banks. The bases for the 2021 Award Edition are presented below.

1. The author(s) of the paper submitted to the contest must be a natural person, national of a Latin American or Caribbean country.¹ Should the paper be written by two or more authors, one of them may have a nationality of a different region. No staff member from CEMLA may participate. Similarly, the author(s) of the paper submitted must be affiliated to a public, educational or multilateral institutions from any of the referred countries. If the paper is written by more than one author, one of them may be affiliated to a private institution.

2. The topics of the papers must bear upon the functions and aspects of direct interest to regional central banks. Among other topics, papers on monetary policy, macroeconomic stability, financial stability, central bank operations, financial cooperation between Latin American and Caribbean countries or the repercussions of international financial events on the region may be submitted.

3. No more than one paper per author will be accepted. If a paper is written by more than one author, each of them must approve the paper’s submission for the Award.

4. The submitted papers must be original and unedited, in their final versions, and written in the format of an academic article. They must not have been published in any form ² with the exception of the works that have been circulated at meetings, seminars, conferences or on websites, in printed or electronic form, as working papers for consultation during their preparatory stages. Author(s) of papers which have been available on websites will be requested to remove them from such sites. University degree theses as well as papers submitted to the meetings of the Central Bank Researchers Network may also be submitted to the Award, so long as they comply with the requirements in this call.

5. Papers should preferably be presented in English, although papers in Spanish, French or Portuguese will be accepted, accompanied, if possible, by an English translation. The papers should not exceed 20,000 words or 50 pages (whichever comes first), including the cover, abstract, introduction, body, conclusions and appendices or annexes.

6. No papers that have participated in previous editions of the Rodrigo Gómez Award may be submitted. Submitted papers may not compete for other awards or be under consideration by other publications until the authors have received a written notification with the results of each evaluation round indicating that their paper is free of such an embargo.

7. The panel of judges must comprise the governors of the central bank associate members of CEMLA’s Board of Governors, or their representatives, as well as up to four additional representatives of associate members or collaborators, renowned researchers, or both. In its capacity as permanent secretariat of the governor’s meetings, CEMLA must act as an advisory body to the panel in such ways as the latter shall determine and will see to the administrative aspects of the contest. In case of a delay on the submission of any of the grades from the panel’s members, the final grade can be determined with at least 80% of the jury’s granted scores.

8. When remitting the papers to the members of the panel, CEMLA must suppress the names of the authors and assign a pseudonym to each submitted paper. The pseudonym will be the only means of identification available to the panel in communicating the corresponding evaluations.

9. The papers must be evaluated by objective criteria and mechanisms defined by the Board of Governors, in two different evaluation rounds. That said, prior to the first round, CEMLA will prescreen the papers that have a chance of being awarded. Once the first evaluation round has concluded, CEMLA will inform the authors if their papers were selected as finalists, that is, if the paper will be evaluated in the second round. The Board of Governors shall grant the Award based on the second-round results during its meeting in the second semester; after that, CEMLA will notify the outcome to all participants as well as to other interested parties.

10. The award for the winning paper(s) will consist of the amount of ten thousand United States Dollars and a diploma. In case of a tie for the first place between two or more competing papers, the amount of the Award will be divided in equal parts among the papers, and for each of them, in equal parts among the authors. In addition, a prize for the second place will consist of the amount of five thousand United States Dollars and a diploma. Honorary mentions can also be awarded to up to two other papers. Honorary mentions will be rewarded with a prize of one thousand five hundred United States dollars each. The same caveats on ties and co-authors are applicable to the second-place prize and the honorary mentions. The result shall not be subject to appeal and the panel may declare the Award, the second-place award and/or the honorific mentions vacant if deemed appropriate.

11. The winner, or one member of the winning team, will be invited to present their paper at a special session of one of the two annual meetings of central bank governors of CEMLA, preferably during the meeting of the first semester. Travel expenses, accommodation, and travel insurance will be covered by CEMLA. The winning team must decide who will be the designated representative and inform CEMLA of its decision.

12. The author or authors of the study or studies deserving the Award, the second place Award or the Honorific Mention automatically grant the copyright to CEMLA, in particular, to translate, edit and publish the winning paper. The publication of the awarded papers will be facilitated in the  Latin American Journal of Central Banking.

13. Participants must send their papers in a file in Word or PDF (in their most recent versions) together with a completed entry form (available at www.cemla.org) by email to the address: rodrigo_gomez@cemla.org, by April 30, 2021, at the latest.

14. Other aspects not foreseen in this call for papers will be resolved by the Board of Governors.