A University of Aberdeen Business School student has scooped a top prize and £1,000 for her dissertation.
Britta Schlingmeier was awarded the Investment Property Forum Educational Trust (IPFET) dissertation prize for the best MSc dissertation on real estate investment and finance. The prize was awarded for the second time.
Britta’s work was chosen from several entries by a panel of academics from the Business School in liaison with a representative from IPFET.
Britta’s dissertation "An analysis of the US financial crisis and the regulatory responses through Basel III" discusses the causes of the crisis and the likely consequences the regulatory responses will have on real estate investments.
Dr Rainer Schulz, Lecturer in Real Estate in the Business School, said: “It is by now rather well understood that the actual crisis in 2007 had many features of a classical bank run. What is less well understood is how it could come that far. It appears that the risk inherent in the financial instruments that were created before the crisis was not really understood and that those who understood it were not exposed to the consequences. Regulators want to prevent a similar built-up in the future and the rules of Basel III should ascertain this. The rules are not set in stone yet, but a broad picture emerges already.”
“Britta’s dissertation is based on wide reading of consultation documents and commissioned reports. The dissertation provides a detailed overview of the US housing crisis and its spill-over into financial markets worldwide. It gives a solid discussion of the main causes and presents how regulators intend to prevent similar events in the future. Even though it might be too early to say what this will imply in the end for real estate investors, the dissertation shows that the broad consequences are already visible.”
“She was a worthy winner of the prize.”
The IPFET prize is for dissertations written in the final stage of the academic year and to be considered for the prize, students must deliver an outstanding dissertation in Property (BU5904) or Finance (BU5903) on a real estate investment and finance topic.
To find out more about the IPF, the IPFET, and suitable dissertation topics, visit http://www.ipf.org.uk/or contact Dr Rainer Schulz r.schulz@abdn.ac.uk