Economics professor Stefanie Stantcheva wins award for high-impact social science

Stefanie Stantcheva, the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy, is one of two U.S.-based social science researchers to win the 2023 A.SK Bright Mind Award. Granted by the Berlin Social Science Center for the first time this year, the prize recognizes younger academics who make important contributions to political and economic reforms.

“I am truly honored to be one of the two inaugural recipients of the Bright Minds Award,” Stantcheva said. “I am very happy that my work seeking to dive into people’s minds and better understand their perceptions, views, and beliefs is resonating with others.”

Stantcheva, a Bulgarian-born French economist who joined the Harvard faculty in 2016, is known for her research on improving taxation systems for greater benefit to people and firms. To that end, she studies the long-term effects of tax policy on everything from education to innovation. She also investigates how citizens regard taxation and other public policies. Her work is widely cited and published regularly in top academic journals. Stantcheva currently serves as co-editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Additionally, Stantcheva founded the Social Economics Lab at Harvard in 2018, where she leads the development of large-scale surveys and experiments designed to assess public thinking on a range of economic issues. Recent projects capture attitudes in various countries on polarization, democratic decline, redistribution, and trade, to give just a few examples.

Also receiving a 2023 A.SK Bright Mind Award, with a prize amount of €20,000, is Princeton University Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs Filiz Garip. Daron Acemoglu, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, won the main A.SK Social Science Award, Berlin Social Science Center’s top honor with a prize amount of €100,000 and granted every two years since 2007.

An award ceremony will take place Nov. 14 in Berlin.