A student from Brno has won an award for the most interesting thesis in the Czech Republic. The thesis focuses on the circular economy, and what factors should be considered to measure the economic performance of a country. Credit: Freepik.
Brno, Nov 28 (BD) – Viet Cuong Le is a student from Brno, who graduated from Mendel University’s Faculty of Economics and Business with a thesis dedicated to the circular economy, which has now won the Atlas Copco Services Award.
Many economists have been arguing for some time that GDP is not the only tool for assessing the health of the economy, but only one of the indicators. Economic performance also depends on other social and environmental factors, such as the number of citizens with university education, the amount of free time available, and the quality of infrastructure, not to mention air pollution, drought, the number of homeless people or the number of road accidents.
The number of factors that can be taken into account therefore differ widely, and can significantly influence figures on national economic performance of a country. Viet Cuong Le built his own Real Progress Indicator for the Czech Republic (GPI 2.0). This indicator is complex, addressing not only the impact of consumption on the well-being of the population, but also including social and environmental aspects.
“The circular economy is an economic model of production and consumption, which consists of sharing goods, renting, reusing, repairing, renovating and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible”, explained Viet Cuong Le.
In recognition of his work, the young economist has won the Atlas Copco Services Award, an award that has been given out for the last three years to the most interesting thesis from a Czech university.
“The winning diploma thesis is very current, stimulating, clear and readable,” said Roman Pavloušek, General Manager of the Atlas Copco Services Financial Center. “The author was not afraid to enter into controversy and underline the limits of the indicator he built. In any case, if the value of this indicator is stable or growing, it means that the natural resources and social capital in the Czech Republic, on which all flows of services and goods depend, will be maintained at least equally for future generations.”
