Graduate Departmental Awards and Recognition

Benjamin C. Horne Memorial Prize

The Benjamin C. Horne Memorial Prize is an endowed fund that generates an annual payout which is awarded each year to graduate students in Economics at UC San Diego whose research has potential to advance causes that were dear to our friend Ben: peace, international cooperation, development, and environmental protection.

2022-23 Recipient

Andre Gray

Clive Granger Research Fellowship

Six fellowships, named after Nobel Prize winner Clive Granger, are awarded each year for the most promising graduate student research. The fellowship carries a small stipend and allows the student to make more rapid dissertation progress by minimizing work obligations for a quarter. Nominations are made by the faculty running the thesis workshops (in consultation with their colleagues) and awards are made by the Graduate Committee.

2022-23 Recipients

Tanner Eastmond
Sabareesh Ramachandran
Hannah Bae
Songyu He

Graduate Student Research Seminars (GSRS)

This award is targeted at encouraging the presentation of research projects at all stages of development; but ideally those which have not yet been presented. Projects do not need to be complete or submission-ready to be presented. In fact, presenting them early on is a great way to get the feedback you need early to keep the project on-track. Awardee is selected by a committee of peers.

2022-23 Recipients

Sabareesh Ramachandran, "Targeting in in-kind programs: A study of housing subsidies"

TA Excellence Award

The Department annually recognizes graduate students for TA Excellence. These awards are intended as a tangible form of thanks to TA's who demonstrate great efforts as well as glowing teaching evaluations from both the undergraduates, graduates and their faculty supervisor. Nominations are solicited from the faculty and awards are made by the Graduate Committee. Awards are given out at the Fall departmental party.

2022-23 Recipients

Tanner Eastmond
Min Surk Lee
Karna Malaviya
Xintong Li
Angela Gu
Churn Ken Lee
Steven Yee

Walter Heller Memorial Prize (Best 3rd Year Paper)

The Department awards the Walter Heller Memorial Prize to the graduate student(s) with the best 3rd year paper. Given in memory of Walter Heller, this award serves to provide a concrete form of recognition to graduate students who are getting off to the best start on their research career. Nominations are solicited from the faculty teaching the final quarter of the third-year paper sequence. Awards are given out at the Fall departmental party.

2022-23 Recipients

Jordan Mosqueda Juarez, "Private Transportation Markets and Endogenous Commuting Costs"
Yuli Xu, "Liberalization to Inequality: How China’s State-Owned Enterprise Reform Restructures the Urban Labor Market"

History of Award Recipients

Benjamin C. Horne Prize

2021-22

Kevin Winseck

2018-19

Wesley Howden

2017-18

Yanjun (Penny) Liao

2016-17

Samuel Krumholz

2015-16

Jeffrey Shrader

2014-15

Mauricio Romero

2013-14

Jamie Mullins

2012-13

Stephie Fried

Clive Ranger Research Fellowship

2021-22

Stefan Faridani
Wanchang Zhang
Minki Kim
Katherine Rittenhouse
Parker Rogers
Jin Xi

2020-21

Mitch Van Vuren
Nikolay Kudrin
Jianan Yang
Rebecca Royer
Jackson Somers
Danil Dmitriev

2019-20

Masha Titova
Sophie Sheng
Camila Navajas
Xiao Ma
Alejandro Nakab
Davide VIviano & Haitian Xie

2018-19

Nobuhiko Nakazawa
Jonathan Leganza
Anastasiia Faikina
Daniela Vidart
Chu (Alex) Yu
Julian Martinez-Iriarte

2017-18

Xuejing(Shirley) Lu
Samuel Krumholz
Peicong Hu
Bruno Lopez-Videla
Lam Nguyen
Runjing Lu

2016-17

Emilien Gouin-Bonenfant
Seung-Keun Martinez
Mauricio Romero
Zhenting Sum
Fanglin Sun
Desmond Ang

2015-16

Roy Allen
Mitch Downey
Ce Liu
Shihan Xie

2014-15

Richard Brady
Zachary Breig
Leland Farmer
Claudio Labanca
Arman Rezaee
Jeffrey Shrader

2013-14

Qihui Chen
Matt Gibson
Matt Goldman
John Rehbeck
Nels Lind
Tamara Sheldon

2012-13

Denise Clayton
Zheng Fang
Michael Kuhn
Myungkyu Shim
Igor Vaynman
Fan "Dora" Xia

2011-12

Hie Joo Ahn
Dallas Dotter
Stephie Fried
David Kaplan
Lindsay Rickey
Larry Schmidt

2010-11

Samuel Bazzi
Aislinn Bohren
Kristy Buzard
Soojin Jo
Antung Liu
Matthew Niedzwiecki

2009-10

Ben Backes
Ben Gilbert
Minseong Kim
Leah Nelson
Charles Sprenger
Jing Wu

Graduate Student Research Seminars (GSRS)

2021-22

Frances Lu, "Land concentration, structural transformation, and rural labor market"

2020-2021

Pietro Spini
Radhika Goyal

2019-2020

Rahdika Goyal

2018-2019

Alyssa Brown

2017-18

Bruno Lopez Videla
Fanglin Sun

2016-17

Ying Feng

2015-16

Nels Lind
Claudio Labanca

2014-15

Erin Wolcott

2013-14

Kilian Heilmann, "The Effectiveness of International Trade Boycotts"

2012-13

Matthew Goldman, "Live by the Three, Die by the Three?"

2011-12

Samuel Bazzi, "Liquidity Constraints and Investment in International Migration: Theory and Evidence from Indonesia"

TA Excellence

2021-22

Ali Uppal
Edoardo Briganti
Jay Cizeski
Jin Xi
Min Surk Lee
Xintong Li

2020-21

Ishani Chatterjee
Kevine Lee Winseck
MinSurk Lee
Connor Redpath
Evgenii Baranov
Weilin Chen
Ziqi Chen
Aleksandr Levkun
Ariel Tsai Chiang
Michael Rogelio Chua
Chen lin

2019-20

Sidney Corey Tate
Sarah Zeng
Sabareesh Ramachandran
Danil Dmitriev
Camila Eugenia Navajas Ahumada
Jianian Yang

2018-19

Tara Sullivan
Zachary Goodman
Linyan Zhu
Olga Denislamova
Pietro Spini
Weilin Chen

2017-18

Aleksandr Levkun
Sarah Zeng
Daniela Vidart
Jacob Orchard
Kevin Ray
Pietro Spini

2016-17

Veena Jevanandam Blume
Runjing Lu
Chelsea Swete
Yang Wang
Alex Mascusi
Fanglin Sun
Claudio Labanca - STATA Lab

2015-16

Zheng Huang
Veena Jeevanandam Blume
Grant Johnson
Vincent Leah-Martin
Pablo Ruiz-Junco
Shihan Xie
Claudio Labanca - STATA Lab

2014-15

Nels Lind
David Coyne
Richard Brady
Vincent Leah-Martin
Bong Hwan Kim
Grant Johnson
Brigitte Roth Tran
William Chi Chiao Leung
Claudio Labanca

2013-14

Vincent Leah-Martin
Andrew Chamberlain
Marina Kutyavina
Andrew Walcher
Oleksiy Mnyshenko
David Coyne

2012-13

Andrew Chamberlain
Michael Levy
Benjamin Miller
Andrew Brownback
Michael Kuhn
Igor Vaynman

2011-12

Andrew Chamberlain
Jong Myun Moon
Shalini Nageswaran
Matthew Niedzwiecki
Tamara Sheldon
Igor Vaynman

2010-11

Andrew Chamberlain
Matthew Goldman
Charles Lin
Matthew Niedzwiecki
Lawrence Schmidt (Undergraduate & Graduate Core)
Fan (Dora) Xia

2009-10

Myungkyu Shim
Jong Myun Moon
Charles Lin
Kevin Novan
Kristy Buzard
Nicholas Turner
Jing Chen (Undergraduate Tutor)

2008-09

Ben Backes (Grad Course)
Charles Lin
Aren Megerdichian
Bryan Tomlin
Aaron Schroeder
Jaime Thomas
Li Zhou

2007-08

Aislinn Bohren (Grad Course)
Scott Borger
Hiroaki Kaido (Grad Course)
Timothy Keller
Charles Lin
Charles Sprenger

2006-07

Andra Chent
Oana Tocoian
Marya Gottlieb
Philip Neary

2005-06

Ricardo Serrano-Padial
Scott Borger
Lone Christiansen
Michael Ewens
Cory Koedel
Seth Pruitt

2004-05

Andra Ghent
Greg Scott

Walter Heller Memorial Prize

2021-22

Anjali Pai, "Bridging the Information Gap in Undergraduate Economics"
Ali Uppal, "The Leverage Puzzle of Monetary Policy"

2020-21

Tjeerd de Vries, "Quantile Approach to Asset Pricing Models"
Victor Sellemi, "Asset Pricing with Supply-Chain Risk"

2019-20

David Viviano, 1st place, "Experimental Design under Network Interference"
Shunsuke Hori, Runner-Up, "The Secular Decline in Aggregate Hours Worked in Japan: A Reinterpretation"

2018-19

Alyssa Brown, tied, "Who Responds to a Free Lunch? Food Spending and the Summer Food Service Program"
Anastasiia Faikina, tied, "Watching the State: Can New Technologies Promote (a Sense of) Democracy?"

2017-18

Daniel Leff Yaffe, 1st place, "The interstate multiplier"
Alejandro Nakab, Runner-Up, "Fear of depreciation: Populist policies of income redistribution"

2016-17

Emilien Gouin-Bonenfant, 1st prize, "Labor turnover, income risk and inequality"
Chelsea Swete, Runner-Up, "Homophobia and the gay-straight wage gap"

2015-16

Shihan Xie, tied, "The Transmission of Monetary Policy Through Local Housing Markets"
Yanjun (Penny) Liao, tied, "Projection Bias in the Decision to Go Solar: Evidence on Costly Cancellations"

2014-15

Mitch Downey, 1st prize, "Partial Automation: Routine-Based Technical Change, Deskilling, and the Minimum Wage"
Zachary Breig, Runner-Up, "Dynamic Delegation"

2013-14

Qihui Chen, 1st prize, "Partially Linear IV Regression with Partial Identification"
Shanthi Manian, Runner-Up, "Conflict and HIV Risk: The Impact of Mexico's Drug War"

2012-13

Zheng Fang, 1st prize (tie), "Restore Bootstrap Consistency with Non-smooth Functionals"
Igor Vaynman, 1st prize (tie), "Asymptotics of the Variance Targeting Estimator for (GARCH (p, q)) Process with Infinite Kurtosis"
Jamie Mullins, Runner-Up, "Curves and Thresholds in Firm Emissions Reductions"

2011-12

Larry Schmidt, Ist Prize, "Flexible Modeling of Conditional Quantiles without Crossing"
Fan "Dora" Xia, Runner-Up, "Estimating Expected Bond Yields: Restriction by Factor Construction"
Alex Imas, Runner-Up, "On Prosocial Incentives"

2010-11

Samuel Bazzi, 1st Prize, "Income Shocks, Credit Constraints, and Barriers to International Migration: Evidence From Indonesia."
Kelly Paulson, Runner-Up,"Using Conditional Exogeneity to Identify the Dynamic Binary Choice Model."

2009-10

Laura Gee, 1st Prize, "Governing Ourselves: Does Third Party Enforcement Crowd out Peer Punishment?"
Kristy Buzard, Honorable Mention, "Contract, Renegotiation, and Hold Up: Results on the Technology of Trade and Investment"
Charles Lin, Honorable Mention, "Why People Vote: Ethical Motives and Social Incentives"

2008-09

Aislinn Bohren, 1st Prize (tie), "Information - Processing Uncertainty in Social Learning"
Doungdao Mahakitsiri, 1st Prize (tie), "Endogenous Free Trade Agreements: An Impact on the Intensive and Extensive Margins of Trade"

2007-08

Hiroaki Kaido, 1st Prize, "Inference on Risk Neutral Measures for Incomplete Markets"
Xun Lu, Honorable Mention, "Granger Causality and Dynamic Structural Systems"
Aren Megerdichian, Honorable Mention, "Econometric Identification of Causal Parameters in Demand Systems"
Alberto Rossi, Honorable Mention, "Forecasting the Equity Premium Using Boosted Regression Trees"

2006-07

Scott Borger, 1st Prize (tie), "Real Time Monetary Policy Rules: Estimating Taylor Rule Parameters with High-Frequency Data"
Ben Gillen, 1st Prize (tie), "A Note Extending Simple Solutions for Portfolio Identification"
Bryan Tomlin, Honorable Mention, Untitled

2005-06

Gray Calhoun
Andra Ghent
Elisa Hovander
Meng Huang

2004-05

Karim Chalak
Lone Christiansen
Dong Jin Lee

2003-04

Tolga Cenesizoglu
Jennifer Poole