The Award of the Deutsche Bank Prize 2007

It is a great honor to welcome you here today to the award ceremony of the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2007, and in particular, to have an opportunity to congratulate the prize-winner Professor Michael Woodford. As most of you know, this is the second time we are celebrating this prize here at Villa Sander, following the award to Professor Eugene Fama two years ago.

Before I start, I would first like to thank all those who have made this event possible, most notably Professor Volker Wieland from the University of Frankfurt and the Center for Financial Studies, who served as the chairman of this year's jury and will be addressing you shortly. I would also like to thank the members of the jury, who spent a considerable amount of time and effort on selecting the winner from among the many high quality recommendations that they received. It is indeed an impressive jury, consisting of outstanding academics and central bankers, as well as a journalist and Deutsche Bank's Chief Economist.