Jurre Hermans was among 452 candidates who submitted entries to win the £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize.
Although his idea was not among the five shortlisted, Jurre received special mention from the judging panel and will receive an €100 gift voucher, the Telegraph reported.
Jurre’s plan suggests the Greek people could exchange their euros for new drachma at the bank, which the Greek government would then redistribute to creditors so they could get “a slice of the pizza”.
“The Bank gives all these euro’s [sic] to the Greek Government (see top left on my picture). All these euros together form a pancake or a pizza (see on top in the picture). Now the Greek government can start to pay back all their debts, everyone who has a debt gets a slice of the pizza.
“You see that all these euro’s in the pizza’s go the companies and banks who have given loans in greece (see right in my picture),” Jurre’s entry stated.
Jurre’s plan also addressed a potential capital flight from Greece: “The Greek people do not want to exchange their Euros for Drachmes [sic] because they know that this Drachme will lose its value dramatically,” he said.
“They try to keep or hide their euro’s. They know that if they wait a while they will get more Drachmes.
“So if a Greek man tries to keep his Euros (or bring his euros to a bank in an other country like Holland or Germany) and it is discovered, he gets a penalty just as high or double as the whole amount in euros he tried to hide!!! In this way I ensure that all Greeks bring their euros to a greek bank and so the greek government can pay back all the debts.”
Entries that made the shortlist include Telegraph columnist Roger Bootle and Nomura’s Jens Nordvig.
The full list is as follows:
Catherine Dobbs – The NEWNEY approach to unscrambling the Euro
Roger Bootle – Leaving the euro: A practical guide
Jonathan Tepper – A Primer on the Euro Breakup: Default, Exit and Devaluation as the Optimal Solution
Jens Nordvig – Planning for an orderly break-up of the European Monetary Union
Neil Record – If member states leave the Economic and Monetary Union, what is the best way for the economic process to be managed to provide the soundest foundation for the future growth and prosperity of the current membership?
To read the entries click here.
