The 2017 AEJ Best Paper Awards Have Been Announced

The 2017 AEJ Best Paper Prizes have been awarded. The papers selected are highlighted below.

AEJ: Applied Economics

In “Market-Based Lobbying: Evidence From Advertising Spending in Italy,” authors Stefano DellaVigna, Ruben Durante, Brian Knight, and Eliana La Ferrara study how firms in Italy changed their advertising spending when media mogul Silvio Berlusconi was in power. They estimate that Berlusconi’s private television network, Mediaset, saw a significant boost in advertising spending from firms between 1993-2009, especially from companies in more regulated sectors. (AEJ: Applied Economics, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2016)

AEJ: Macroeconomics

In “Understanding the Great Recession,” authors Lawrence J. Christiano, Martin S. Eichenbaum, and Mathias Trabandt argue that most of the movement in aggregate real economic activity during the Great Recession were due to financial frictions. According to their model, the fall in total factor productivity and rise in the cost of working capital played critical roles in accounting for the small drop in inflation during the Great Recession. ( AEJ: Macroeconomics, Vol. 7, No.1, January 2015)

AEJ: Microeconomics

In "Investing in Skill and Searching for Coworkers: Endogenous Participation in a Matching Market,” authors Chris Bidner, Guillaume Roger, and Jessica Moses study how search frictions have important implications for participating in a skilled labor market. They determined that search frictions induce the existence of acceptance-constrained equilibria, whereby matching concerns — as opposed to investment costs — dissuade the marginal agent from investing and participating in the skilled matching market. (AEJ: Microeconomics Vol. 8, No. 1, February 2016)

AEJ: Economic Policy

In “Of Mice and Academics: Examining the Effect of Openness on Innovation,” authors Fiona Murray, Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont, Julian Kolev, and Scott Stern argue that increased openness among biomedical researchers to share their knowledge and tools encourages other researchers to enter the field and invites exploration of more diverse research paths. (AEJ: Economic Policy, Vol. 8, No. 1, February 2016)