Prizes and distinctions : Duncan Webb receives a Special Mention for the 2025 AFSE Best PhD Dissertation Awards

Duncan Webb, a graduate of the Public Policy and Development Master’s program (2019) and the PhD program (2024) at PSE, received a Special Mention in the 2025 AFSE Best PhD Dissertation Awards for his thesis entitled “Essays on Development Economics.” His main field of research is development economics. As a postdoctoral student at Princeton University, he uses tools and insights from behavioral economics to focus on highly policy-relevant issues related to discrimination, social change, and human capital.

The dissertation is structured in 3 chapters:

• The first, Silence to Solidarity: Using Group Dynamics to Reduce Anti-Transgender Discrimination in India, studies how discrimination is affected by communication about a marginalized minority.
• The second, Menstrual Stigma, Hygiene, and Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar, joint with Karen Macours and Julieta Vera Rueda, studies how menstrual stigma can be addressed by amplifying the voice of those who are willing to speak out, and how hygiene-focused programs can generate human capital improvements in low-income schools.
• Finally, the third chapter, Critical Periods in Cognitive and Socioemotional Development: Evidence from Weather Shocks in Indonesia, studies how the timing of shocks in early childhood can have long-lasting consequences on the development of an individual’s human capital.