The 2010 recipient of the Larry Schloss Prize for Excellence in Economics is Jay Shimshack, an assistant professor in the Economics Department. Jay is a leading young scholar in the field of environmental economics, applied microeconomics, and public policy. Shimshack’s research examines how firms, consumers, and public agencies respond to environmental policies. He is especially interested in understanding underlying economic incentives and their implications for designing more effective and efficient environmental policies. Areas of specific interest include monitoring and enforcement, corporate environmental performance, advisories and transparency policies, and environmental health.
Jay had an absolutely wonderful year. He had three papers published, or accepted for publication, all in quality journals (Economic Inquiry, Journal of Environmental Economics & Management, and the Journal of Health Economics). His paper in Economic Inquiry was recognized earlier as the best conference paper by the Academy of Management. Jay’s research has produced important insights about the effects of environmental policies. He testified in the U.S. Congress about the performance of Clean Water Act monitoring and enforcement. He has contracted with the US EPA to review the state of science related to environmental enforcement and to evaluate the effectiveness of Agency compliance assurance activities. His advisory and transparency research has been cited to influence public policies at the FDA, the EPA, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Jay was also invited to become a member of the editorial council for the Journal of Environmental Economics & Management, a leading field journal in environmental economics. This is quite an accomplishment for a junior faculty member. The Economics Department’s Committee on Prizes (Professors Olson, Sheffrin, and Castaneda) was unanimous in their recommendation that Jay Shimshack be the 2010 recipient of the Larry Schloss Prize for Excellence in Economics.
This year the prize is worth $15,000. We are very grateful to Larry Schloss for his generous support of the Department of Economics and Tulane.