A Warwick PPE student has been named as one of the four finalists for the International Atlantic Economic Society's (IAES) Best Undergraduate Paper Competition.

Virginia Minni, who recently graduated with first-class degrees in BSc Philosophy, Politics and Economics with Economics Major, will present her work at the 80th International Atlantic Economic Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, which takes place 8-11th October 2015. The winner of the competition will receive a cash prize and have their paper printed in an upcoming issue of the Atlantic Economic Journal, with the other three finalists invited to have an 800 word abstract of their papers published.

The papers being presented are:

• Virginia Minni “Can Greater Bank Capital Lead to Less Bank Lending? An Analysis of the Bank-Level Evidence from Europe”
• Hameem Raees Chowdhury “Joint-Liability in Microcredit: Evidence from Bangladesh”, Economics, Warwick
• Federica Coelli “The Impact of Floods on Firms' Performance” University of Bologna, Italy
• Evelina Lazareva “Do Rating Agencies Confirm or Surprise the Market? Market Efficiency Hypothesis vs Conspiracy Theory” Nottingham Trent University

This isn’t the first time Virginia has had her work recognised internationally, as earlier in the year she presented a paper at The Carroll Round; an annual international conference in the United States.

Family, friends and staff gathered on a sunny afternoon on Saturday to celebrate the graduation success of the Class of 2015.

The ceremony, held with Economics, took place in the Warwick Arts Centre, where 1200 friends and family watched students graduate and Professor James Robinson receive an honorary degree, before attending an evening drinks reception.

Prizes were awarded to PPE students:

Virginia Minni - PPE Examiner's Prize 2015

Daniel Ross-Wilmore - The Rohin Modasia Prize 2015 for recognition of excellence in Economics with application to benefit the wider community

The great extra-curricular work of PPE graduate Alex Clark was also celebrated, as he picked up this year's Outstanding Student Contribution Award (OSCA).

Congratulations to all our graduates! We wish you the very best of luck for the future.

Warwick's Students Union's annual Societies Awards will take place on Saturday 20th July. Our very own PPE Society is nominated for Best Academic Society.

The nomination comes the year after the PPE Society was named Society of the Year and is a demonstration of all the executive committee's hard work in events organisation, careers support, mentoring, charity events, book sales and everything else which goes into making a top society with over 800 members.

Whatever the result, it has been a great year for the society. Well done!

Congratulations to second-year PPE student and editor-in-chief of Warwick student newspaper The Boar, Hiran Adhia. Hiran has reached the grand finals of Undergraduate of the Year.

Reaching the final (and therefore top 10) of this competition is no mean feat. In order to reach this stage Hiran had to first answer questions from some of the top recruiters in the country, then complete a series of competency tests and finally pass various assessment centre challenges hosted by Mars. Having performed outstandingly at all stages, Hiran now holds the proud accolade of The Future Business Leader of the Year 2022 finalist, and today we’ll discover the winners!

Well done, Hiran. We are all rooting for you!

Last year, a Warwick Economics graduate began a yearlong charity cycling journey. Hitesh Pankhania, who studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) is currently cycling from Indonesia to London to raise money for charity with his cousin Vivek Jadav.

Hitesh and Vivek have been updating everyone on their journey in their blog, The World on Wheels. You can also find out more about how Hitesh has been applying the Economics he honed during his time Warwick here.