On 6 June, the UGO prizes for outstanding Bachelor's and Master's theses from the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics were awarded at Gräflicher Park Bad Driburg.

We are very proud that Aliana Görtz was honoured for her Master's thesis on "The effects of firm transparency on the insolvency process: Evidence from Germany". The thesis was supervised by Prof Dr Urska Kosi, Chair of External Accounting and Auditing at the Department of Taxation, Accounting and Finance. The prize, worth 750 euros, was presented by Thomas Koch and Melanie Cramer from the Unternehmergruppe Ostwestfalen e. V. (East Westphalia Entrepreneurs' Group).

Their Master's thesis entitled "The effects of firm transparency on the insolvency process: Evidence from Germany" examines an extremely relevant and topical issue and provides very important insights into the German insolvency process. The main findings of this analysis show a positive correlation between firm transparency and the overall outcome of the insolvency process, i.e. better outcomes mean the preservation of a company and less good outcomes mean the liquidation of a company. Finally, the results show a positive correlation between company transparency and the time to liquidation, although the effect of transparency on the payout ratio is very weak.

In cooperation with Paderborn University, the Unternehmergruppe Ostwestfalen e. V. annually honours outstanding theses by Paderborn University students supervised by professors from the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.