The REmagine Award is presented to master's graduates in the faculties of economics and business who demonstrate exceptional vision in reimagining economics and business for positive change. The award is initiated by the Dutch Council of Deans in Economics and Business with the support of the Goldschmeding Foundation.

Data-driven alternative

Kerssen’s thesis harnesses recent NLP advancements to create sentiment indices that capture public and investor moods through nearly half a million news articles. The novel sentiment measures align closely with established economic indicators. This offers actionable insights for investors, businesses, policymakers, and regulators. His approach outlined in this research provides a timely, data-driven alternative to traditional methods, empowering a more responsive, human-centered economic outlook.

'Huge implications'

According to the jury, ‘the thesis demonstrates the potential of AI in finance and economics by showcasing its ability to analyse large volumes of textual data. It then extracts meaningful insights and contributes to a better understanding of market dynamics. Its focus on using AI for market sentiment analysis is innovative, maybe even groundbreaking, and could have huge implications for investment strategies, risk management, and economic policy. The thesis shows clearly how impactful AI can be to improve forecasting and decision-making in financial markets, contributing to a broader digital transformation of the financial industry.’