Ten undergraduate students from the Economics Department at Harvard University named Hoopes Prize Winners

Seventy-four students learned on May 14^th, 2008 that they received the distinguished Hoopes Prize for outstanding academic research work. The prize carries with it a $3,500 award for the student and a $700 gift for the faculty advisor. A panel of Faculty members awards the prize based on the breadth and impact of the nominated works (typically senior theses).

The Hoopes prize was created from the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes ’19 to grant annual awards to undergraduates on the basis of outstanding scholarly works or research. The fund provides undergraduate prizes to be given for the purpose of “promoting, improving and enhancing the quality of education…in literary, artistic, musical, scientific, historical or other academic subjects made part of the College curriculum under Faculty supervision and instruction, particularly by recognizing, promoting, honoring and rewarding excellence in the work of undergraduates and their capabilities and skills in any subject, projects of research in science or the humanities, or in specific written work of the students under the instruction or supervision of the Faculty.” An “incidental objective or purpose” of the fund is to “promote excellence in the art of teaching.” Awards are therefore given to the members of the Faculty or teaching staff who have both supervised and nominated the prize-winning work of undergraduates.

Here is list of winners from the Economics department with their advisors and thesis titles included:

Robert Cecot: (Advisor: Sendhil Mullainathan): People Helping (White) People: Evidence of Racial Descrimination in Peer-to-Peer Lending

Tyler Goodspeed: (Hist/Ec) (Advisor: Charles Maier): Rethinking the Keynesian Revolution: Keynes, Hayek, and the Wicksell Connection

Adam Guren: (Advisor Larry Katz): The Marriage Market Returns to College Quality

Erik Kouskalis: (Soc/Ec) (Advisors: Michael Kremer & Mary Brinton): Does Not Compute: The Introduction of New Technologies to South African and Namibian Classrooms

Jonathan Lee: (Advisor: David Laibson): Investigating the Labor Supply Implications of Kahneman’s Peak-End Rule

Jonathan Siegel (Advisor: Ed Glaeser): The Local Impact of Interstates: Assessing the Effect of Highway Construction on Surrounding Neighborhoods

Jie Tang: (CS/Ec) (Advisor: David Parkes): Informativeness and Incentive-Compatibility for Reputation Systems

Elina Tetelbaum: (Advisor: Jeff Miron): A Sobering Look at How Minimum Legal Drinking Age Laws Affect Trafic Fatalities

Bobby Xu: (Advisor: Oliver Hart): The Effect of Relationships on Contract Choice: A Theoretical Approach

Crystal Yang: (Advisor: Claudia Goldin): An Empirical Analysis of Rape Shield Legislation

For more information on the this year’s Hoopes Prize winners, see the article in the Harvard Crimson at http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523584.

For more information on the Hoopes Prize, please see the 2007/08 Hoopes Prize Information page at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfas/prize_HoopesInfo_2007-08.htm.

For the complete list of winners for the 2007/08 Hoopes Prize please see http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfas/Winners%20List%20for%20Posting%20-%20Hoopes%202008.pdf