Dissertation Award  

Description

The W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research invites submissions for its annual prize for the best Ph.D. dissertation on employment-related issues.

A first prize of $2,000 is being offered. Up to two honorable mention awards of $750 may also be given.

The Institute supports and conducts policy-relevant research on employment, unemployment, and social insurance programs. The dissertation award further pursues this mission. The dissertation may come from any academic discipline, but it must have a substantial policy thrust.

Dissertations will be evaluated by a panel of economists using the following criteria:

  • Policy relevance
  • Technical quality of the research
  • Presentation.

Eligibility and Deadlines

  • Any person whose dissertation was accepted during the 24-month period of July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2009 is eligible for the 2009 prize.
  • The deadline to apply for the 2009 award is July 6, 2009.

Applicants must send a 10-page summary of the dissertation and a letter of endorsement from their dissertation advisor to the following address:

Upjohn Institute Dissertation Award
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
300 S. Westnedge Ave.
Kalamazoo, MI 49007-4686

Applicants are advised that they will need to supply a copy of their entire dissertation if they are selected as a finalist, and they may only apply for the award once.

Additional information may be obtained by correspondence sent to the above address, by telephone (269) 343-5541, or by e-mail to webmaster@upjohninstitute.org

2008 Award Winners

First Prize
David Albouy, University of California, Berkeley (Advisors: David Card and Emmanuel Saez)
"Causes and Consequences of Unequal Federal Taxation and Spending Across Regions"

Honorable Mentions
Ron Laschever, Northwestern University (Advisor: Dale Mortensen)
"Social Interactions and Labor Market Outcomes of War Veterans"
Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Columbia University, (Advisor: Eric Verhoogen)
"Essays on International Migration"

Past Recipients

2007 First Prize (co-winners)
Patricia Cortes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: David Autor)
Patrick M. Kline, University of Michigan (Advisor: Gary Solon)

Honorable Mention
Giovanni Mastrobuoni, Princeton University (Advisor: Orley Ashenfelter)

2006 First Prize
Joanna Nicole Lahey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Dora L. Costa)

Honorable Mentions
Martha J. Bailey, Vanderbilt University (Advisor: Robert A. Margo)
Caitlin Knowles Myers, University of Texas at Austin (Advisors: Daniel Hamermesh, Paul W. Wilson)

2005 First Prize
Chris Riddell, University of Toronto (Advisor: Morley Gunderson)

Honorable Mention
Joel Elvery, University of Maryland (Advisor: Judith K. Hellerstein)

2004 First Prize (co-winners)
Alexandre Mas, Princeton University (Advisor: Alan B. Krueger)
Eric Verhoogen, University of California, Berkeley (Advisors: David Card and Pranab Bardhan)

Honorable Mention
Pedro Carneiro, University of Chicago (Advisor: James J. Heckman)

2003 First Prize (co-winners)
Rucker Charles Johnson, University of Michigan (Advisors: John Bound, Sheldon Danziger)
James X. Sullivan, Northwestern University (Advisor: Bruce D. Meyer)

Honorable Mention
Julie A. Kmec, University of Pennsylvania (Advisor: Paula England)

2002 First Prize
Olivier Deschenes, Princeton University (Advisor: Orley Ashenfelter)

Honorable Mentions
Yu-Che Chang, Indiana University (Advisor: Joyce Man)
Elizabeth A. Hoffmann, University of Wisconsin, Madison (Advisor: Mark C. Suchman)

2001 First Prize
Amitabh Chandra, University of Kentucky (Advisor: Mark Berger)

Honorable Mentions
Stephanie Aaronson, Columbia University (Advisor: Stephen Cameron)
Govert Bijwaard, Free University of Amsterdam (Advisor: Geert Ridder)

2000 First Prize
Luojia Hu, Princeton University (Advisor: Henry Farber)

Honorable Mentions
Darren Lubotsky, University of California, Berkeley (Advisors: David Card, Hilary Hoynes)
Sean May, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Joshua Angrist)

1999 First prize
Robert T. Greenbaum, Carnegie Mellon University (Advisor: John Engberg)

Honorable Mentions
David H. Autor, Harvard University (Advisor: Lawrence F. Katz)
Dan T. Rosenbaum, Northwestern University (Advisor: Bruce Meyer)

1998 First prize
Steven J. Haider, University of Michigan (Advisor: Gary Solon)

Honorable Mentions
Kanika Kapur, Northwestern University (Advisor: Bruce Meyer)
Paul A. Smith, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Advisor: Robert Haveman)

1997 First prize
Kenneth Y. Chay, Princeton University (Advisor: David Card)

Honorable Mentions
Sandra E. Black, Harvard University (Advisor: Lawrence Katz)
Carole Roan Gresenz, Brown University (Advisor: Robert Moffitt)

1996 First prize (co-winners)
Carolyn Heinrich,University of Chicago (Advisor: James J. Heckman)
Jeffrey Smith, University of Chicago (Advisor: James J. Heckman)

Honorable Mentions
John Pepper, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Advisor: Charles F. Manski)
Mark D. Turner, University of Maryland at College Park (Advisor: William N. Evans)

1995 First prize
David Jaeger,University of Michigan (Advisor: John Bound)

Honorable Mentions
Anne Morrison Piehl,Princeton University (Advisor: David Card)
Matthew Slaughter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Paul Krugman)

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