Deshpande receives 2020 AEJ Best Paper Award
Published by sclapp on Apr 30, 2020
On April 28, the American Economic Association (AEA) announced recipients of the Best Paper Awards of the American Economic Journals. These Awards highlight the best paper published in each of the American Economic Journals: Applied Economics, Economic Policy, Macroeconomics, and Microeconomics over the last three years. Nominations are provided by AEA members, and winners are selected by the journals' editors, co-editors, and boards of editors.
Prof. Manasi Deshpande won the award in AEJ: Economic Policy for her work with University of Albany Economics Prof. Yue Li, "Who is Screened Out? Application Costs and the Targeting of Disability Programs,” which studies the effect of application costs on the targeting of disability programs.
Read more about Prof. Deshpande’s research on her webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/mdeshpande
Root is an Economics Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. His interests are Market and Mechanism Design, Microeconomic Theory, and Behavioral Economics. His dissertation, “Market Design Under Constraints,” studies how social and technological constraints determine the ways in which scarce resources can be allocated among individuals or groups. His research focuses on identifying unifying mathematical features for these problems in order to increase the scope of applications for market design. 
Rose is an Economics Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. His interests are Labor Economics, Public Economics, Urban Economics, and Applied Econometrics. His job market paper, “Who Gets a Second Chance? Effectiveness and Equity in State Supervision of Criminal Offenders,” studies how facially race-neutral policies can generate big disparate impacts even when applied without discriminatory intent. The context he studies is probation, which is the most common criminal punishment in the United States. His research focuses on interactions between labor markets, educational institutions, and the justice system, with a particular focus on discrimination and inequality.
Kristen is a joint BA/MA student with a background in disability, economic, and tech justice. She is currently majoring in economics and international relations, with a specialization in political economy. On campus, she is the co-president of a disability activism student group, a Stamps Scholar, deaf studies research assistant, and member of various advisory boards within student government and the Office of the Provost. She has worked at both the state and federal level in public policy, including internships for the Illinois House Majority Leader, Senator Amy Klobuchar’s Washington office, the United States Department of the Interior, State Department, Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign in Iowa, and Facebook’s public policy team. Her work experiences have motivated her to pursue a JD/MPP with a focus on disability policy. Currently, she approaches disability justice from an economic and tech framework through her special education and tech-focused nonprofit, which she co-founded with two other University of Chicago students. She plans to delve into the intersection of these fields in her career in public service.
Rodrigo is currently pursuing a joint BA/MA in economics and international relations, focusing on international political economy and development. Proudly claiming the US-Mexico border as home, Rodrigo is passionate about inclusive regional development. Growing up five miles from the Rio Grande in the poorest town in Texas, he witnessed firsthand the stranglehold of poverty and systemic underdevelopment suffocating his community. In response, Rodrigo joined the American Red Cross’ El Paso chapter as a high school sophomore. Five years later, he continues turning his compassion into action as a Lead Volunteer in International Services. He has mobilized the power of volunteers to reconnect asylum seekers recently released from detention centers with loved ones around the country. To date, he and his team have helped over 1,000 asylum seekers. He also serves on the American Red Cross’ National Youth Council, on which he represents youth volunteers and advises national leadership on policies and programs concerning youth engagement. His intergovernmental experiences include interning for the White House Domestic Policy Council, in Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Office, and most recently, in the El Paso County Judge’s Office, where he pushed for innovative changes focused on cooperative economic development. Rodrigo gives all the credit to anything he has accomplished to Jesus Christ. As a proud fronterizo (border resident), he aspires to be an advocate for underserved border communities.