The Elinor Ostrom Lifetime Achievement Award
Gérard Roland, E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
Gérard Roland received this award for "sustained significant academic contributions to the field." He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles across Economics and Political Science, authored eleven books, and written numerous policy pieces addressing institutions, culture, development, and institutional change.
His research examines "the determinants and effects of political institutions and their transformations," engaging with work by scholars including Ostrom, North, Coase, Williamson, Greif, and Weingast. His publications span analysis of socialist systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s, economic reforms under political constraints, and soft budget constraints in banking reforms and privatization.
Roland has collaborated extensively with scholars like Matthias Dewatripont on gradualism, Patrick Bolton and Thierry Verdier on banking issues, and Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini on political economy. His comparative perspective led to studying "China's economic reforms with Yingyi Qian and Chenggang Xu, examining administrative structures in governments and firms."
He developed the concept of "culture as slow-moving institutions," exploring relationships between rapidly changing legal frameworks and gradually evolving cultural elements. His book Development Economics incorporates institutional analysis into undergraduate development instruction.
Roland has mentored over 30 PhD students now holding academic posts globally, including Chris Blattman, Micael Castanheira, Jan Fidrmuc, Ethan Kaplan, and Suresh Naidu.
The Ronald H. Coase Dissertation Award
Elisa Wirsching, "Essays on the Politics of Local Bureaucracy" (New York University, 2024)
Wirsching's dissertation addresses local bureaucracies — teachers, police officers, social workers, and administrators who shape citizens' daily government experiences.
First Essay: Using data on millions of 911 calls, Wirsching found that "after the New York City Council voted to cut the police budget, NYPD officers slowed response times disproportionately in the districts of council members who supported the cuts."
Second Essay: She developed a formal model analyzing bureaucratic sabotage, showing it creates both "under-reform" and "over-reform," as politicians anticipate voter interpretations of service disruptions.
Third Essay: Analyzing over 200,000 New York City employees including 58,000 police officers, Wirsching documented racial and political affiliation differences in hiring, promotion, and retention, showing how events like George Floyd's murder reshaped NYPD composition.
The committee praised her focus on local bureaucracies often overlooked despite their direct citizen impact, her sophisticated analysis treating bureaucrats as active political players rather than passive implementers, and her integration of theory with empirical analysis.
Honorable Mentions:
- Carlo Medici (Northwestern University): Impact of mass immigration on organized labor
- Jino Lu (University of Southern California): Technological advances impacting innovation across domains
Committee: Talia Gillis (chair), Virginia Minni, Jared Rubin, Roya Talibova
The Oliver E. Williamson Best Conference Paper Award
Johannes Hoelzemann, Gustavo Manso, Abhishek Nagaraj and Matteo Tranchero, "The Streetlight Effect in Data-Driven Exploration"
This study examines whether limited exploration in scientific research stems from inherent constraints or "organizational failures in incentive structures." The research demonstrates that "access to information can paradoxically constrain exploration."
The framework reveals that when decision-makers possess information about medium-value opportunities, they may forgo exploring potentially superior alternatives, as known medium-value options appear more attractive than uncertain high-risk, high-reward projects.
Empirical Evidence:
- Laboratory experiments showed information about medium-value projects reduces optimal outcome identification probability by over fifty percent
- Genetic research analysis from 1980–2019 found medium-value genetic discoveries delay scientific breakthroughs by approximately 2.8 years
- Research significantly reduces exploration of novel targets
The work has implications for research institutions, funding agencies, and policymakers, particularly regarding artificial intelligence integration into decision-making processes relying on historical data.
Committee: Barton Lee, Sara Lowes, Daniela Scur (chair), Shaoda Wang