Prizes and distinctions : Applications are open for the 2025 Daniel Cohen Award
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The École normale supérieure – PSL, the Paris School of Economics and Daniel Cohen’s family have decided to honour the memory of Daniel Cohen by creating a prize in his name, generously funded this year by the association des anciens élèves de l’École normale supérieure (A-Ulm) and Emmanuel Boussard, former student of the ENS and co-founder of Boussard & Gavaudan.
In the footsteps of an intellectual engaged in society
The Daniel Cohen Award aims to extend Daniel Cohen’s commitment to applying economic science to public debate and decision-making. Reflecting the themes explored by Daniel Cohen in his latest works, the award aims to highlight research focused on the new economic and technological challenges, as well as the new social and ethical norms, faced by our contemporary societies.
To reward doctoral research on policy relevant topics
The prize will be a 10,000 euros prize for the best paper from a graduating PhD student worldwide, whose research is related to the topic of the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum for that year. The PSE-CEPR Policy Forum is a 3 days conference designed to foster a dialogue between the best research and policy makers around central policy topic. This year’s edition will be held on June 5, 6, 7 on the topic: The Future of Work.
Therefore we welcome nominations on the topic of labor broadly defined, including work arrangements, impact of AI, gender and the labor market, discrimination on the labor market, and really anything labor!
Selected by an international committee chaired by Esther Duflo
The selection of the laureate will be carried out by an international scientific committee chaired by Esther Duflo and composed by the President of the PSE Scientific Advisory Board, the PSE Research Director, guest speakers from this edition of the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum and a PSE professor.
For the 2025 edition, the award committee is composed of: Pascaline Dupas (Princeton University), Jean-Marc Tallon (PSE, CNRS), David Autor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Marianne Bertrand (University of Chicago Booth School of Business), Stephen Davis (Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research) and Thomas Breda (PSE, CNRS).
Applications
The applications must be submitted by May 1st, 2025, by filling out this form.
The prize of 10,000 euros will be awarded to a PhD dissertation for its exceptional level of excellence and international recognition, as well as for its ability to make the results and methods of its research accessible.
Submissions are therefore restricted to thesis supervisors or department heads or researchers (who know the candidate very well).
All students finishing their thesis or entering the Job Market for the first time.
Normally, one of the thesis advisors or someone who knows the candidate very well and can write a letter of recommendation.
The theme is the discipline of economics in connection with the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum. In 2025, it was labor economics.
There are ex officio members who are present every year:
- Esther Duflo, President of PSE
- Pascaline Dupas, President of the PSE Scientific Advisory Board
- Jean-Marc Tallon, PSE Research Director
There are also members who change from one year to the next:
- The keynote speakers at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum
- An ENS-PSL professor in the chosen field.
All jury members review all applications and assign each a rank (1 for first place, 2 for second, etc.). If there is a Condorcet winner, he or she wins. If not, the candidate is selected using the Borda count method (the candidate with the fewest points wins). If a jury member’s student ranks among the top candidates after the initial count, that jury member recuses themselves, and a new count is conducted without their vote. If the results are very close, the jury members engage in a discussion to reach a consensus on the winner.
Nina Buchmann (2024) and Deivy Houeix (2025).
The Daniel Cohen Award is funded by the association des anciens élèves de l’École normale supérieure (A-Ulm).
