2022 José Luís Sapateiro Prize awarded for the work on the use of nudges to optimise investment decisions

23 May 2023

The work 'The influence of nudges and financial literacy on market participation and socially responsible investment', authored by Sara Magalhães, is the winner of the 2022 edition of the José Luís Sapateiro Award that annually distinguishes the best submitted academic works on capital markets.

The awarded research seeks to assess whether the use of nudges, applied to financial and investment decisions, can guide individuals towards the most advantageous decision making. The study considers that the degree of financial literacy of individuals is not sufficient to make sound financial decisions due to behavioural biases that can eventually be reduced by using nudges.

Sara Magalhães holds a degree in Economics from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto and a Masters in Management and Business from the University of Minho. She currently works as a global financial analyst in the technology field.

The jury of the 2022 edition was composed by Professors Maria do Céu Cortez (University of Minho), Paulo Soares de Pinho (NOVA School of Business and Economics) and Victor Mendes (of CMVM, who chaired the event) who decided on the prize attribution considering the originality and the way the theme is approached, as well as "the interest and relevance for supervisory purposes, namely behavioural, of the securities market".

The José Luís Sapateiro Prize, worth 5.000 euros, was created by the CMVM to distinguish an academic dissertation or an original research work on a theme of relevance and interest for the Portuguese capital market, alternating annually between legal and economic works. The 2022 edition was designed to reward works of an economic nature.

José Luís Sapateiro (1927 - 2016) was Secretary of State to the Treasury between 1972 and 1974 and was decisive in the regulation of the Portuguese capital market, as coordinator of the works on the legislative process which culminated in 1991, in the first Securities Market Code and the creation of the CMVM on 10 May of that year. This Code became known as the "Sapateiro Law". Since 2016, in a fitting tribute, the CMVM's annual award has been renamed the José Luís Sapateiro Prize.