The papers by the award recipients evidence a deep understanding of economic research methodology, creativity that goes beyond replicating existing studies, and an impressive amount of hard work. They address important policy questions and make commendable progress toward answering them. Their presentation is clear and well written.
Class of 2026
Yuanzhen Li
"Misperceived Social Norms: Conflict Between Childbearing and Career Development Among Chinese Women"
Yuanzhen investigates how social norms and beliefs about the prevailing norms affect women's childbearing and career decisions in the workplace. Her capstone paper combines theoretical modeling and empirical research. Her novel model explains how misperceptions of social norms can affect behavior and persist through conservative choices which prevent the production of evidence that would correct those beliefs. Her on-field survey documents that the misalignment between norms and perceptions of norms exists and is relevant for women's outcomes in the workplace.
Shirshak Poudel
"Optimal Information Disclosure in Financial Markets"
Shirshak's paper reveals that strict public disclosure laws can counterproductively drive healthy companies to stay or go private. He demonstrates that in markets where investor confidence is self-reinforcing (meaning investors panic if they think others will panic), forcing public firms to over-disclose financial data increases stock volatility and harms company value. In contrast to the traditional financial theories that blame short-term market pressures or management perks, the paper’s core contribution is proving that companies choose to operate privately as a strategic shield, protecting themselves from the destabilizing investor panics caused by mandatory public transparency.
