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Economist with focus on inequality receives new Swedish prize in economics and management

Marianne Bertrand
Marianne Bertrand

Professor Marianne Bertrand at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is the first recipient of the Jan Söderberg Family Prize in Economics and Management. Professor Bertrand will receive the prize and hold a lecture on 12 March in Lund, Sweden.

“Marianne Bertrand is one of the world’s most prominent applied micro-economists,” says Fredrik Andersson, dean at Lund University School of Economics and Management, as well as chair of the prize committee.

“We see her work as an inspiration for researchers in both economics and management. Her focus on issues such as inequality and discrimination also align well with our core research agenda. It really is a pleasure for everyone involved to announce that Marianne Bertrand is the recipient of the first Jan Söderberg Family Prize in Economics and Management”, he continues.

The prize is made possible by the generous donation of SEK 1 million annually, for three years, from entrepreneur Jan Söderberg and his family. 

Marianne Bertrand is a professor in economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her research interests cover the fields of economics, labour, development, corporate finance, political economy and psychology.

“I find it most interesting to push the boundaries of economics. I am convinced that satisfactory answers to many of the questions that interest me cannot be provided by solely looking at market incentives or restricting the human decision-making process to strict rationality assumptions. For example, it is difficult to fully understand the sources of the gender wage gap or the sources of racial prejudice without tapping into the tools of sociology and psychology. Similarly, it is difficult to fully explore the sources and consequences of income inequality without paying attention to the role of political institutions, power and influence”, Professor Bertrand says.

Research with substantial impact

Professor Bertrand’s published work focuses on some of today’s most important and controversial issues: inequality, discrimination, sexism, CEO compensation and social divergence. The prize committee finds her research to encompass an outstanding breadth, that exemplifies the potential in contemporary methods such as machine learning, big data and randomized, controlled field experiments for addressing key questions in social science.

“Most of my work tries to leverage rich datasets to try to better understand the way society works, what motivates people and explain their decisions, why some people succeed and others don’t. Like all economists, I am interested in the role that market forces play in shaping people’s outcomes, but I am probably more interested than the average economist in the role that psychology, culture, norms and institutions play in shaping these outcomes”, says Professor Bertrand.

Marianne Bertrand’s research has had a substantial impact in both academia and policy-making. An important example is her paper on labour market discrimination “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” which inspired a large literature on discrimination in economics and affected the way companies and governments screen job candidates.

Another example is her work on CEO pay, showing that top executives were rewarded for “luck” – factors beyond CEO control – and that better board governance is called for. The research helped shape stockholder and regulator efforts to overhaul executive compensation rules.

“I try to make sure that my research has policy relevance, even if I do not always succeed. One easily remains motivated to study these topics because of concerns about fairness and equality of opportunities,” concludes Marianne Bertrand.

Facts: Marianne Bertrand

Marianne Bertrand is the Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She was born in Belgium and received a Bachelor's degree in economics and Master’s degree in econometrics from Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels) in the early 1990s. She moved to the United States and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1998. She was an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer) at Princeton University for two years before joining Chicago Booth in 2000. She has previously received several prestigious awards and honours.


Facts: The Prize & the Economics and Management Day

The Jan Söderberg Family Prize in Economics and Management awards SEK 1 million to a leading international scholar under the age of 50 in the field of Economics and Management. The prize is to be awarded for the first time on 12 March at a ceremony in Lund.
The basis for the prize is: it shall be awarded to a person who has made a discovery or contribution within the fields of economics and management of eminent significance and whose work has demonstrably renewed research and application in its domain.

Read more about the Prize at lusem.lu.se

The 2019 Economics and Management Day will follow the day after the prize ceremony. It takes place on 13 March and offers a full programme of interdisciplinary lectures. This year’s theme: Investments in health – challenges for the 21th century.

Read more about the 2019 Economics and Management Day

Contact:

Marianne Bertrand
Chris P. Dialynas Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Phone: +1 (773) 834-5943
marianne [dot] bertrand [at] chicagobooth [dot] edu (marianne[dot]bertrand[at]chicagobooth[dot]edu)

Fredrik Andersson
Dean, Lund University School of Economics and Management
+46 (0)46 222 86 76
fredrik [dot] andersson [at] ehl [dot] lu [dot] se (fredrik[dot]andersson[at]ehl[dot]lu[dot]se)

Jan Söderberg
Contact the press officer

Louise Larsson
Press officer, Lund University School of Economics and Management
+46 (0)46 222 08 44
louise [dot] larsson [at] ehl [dot] lu [dot] se (louise[dot]larsson[at]ehl[dot]lu[dot]se)