SBCA Awards

The Society Fellows Program 

The Society Fellows Program recognizes people who have made substantial contributions to the theory or practice for benefit-cost analysis. This program enhances the ability of SBCA to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of benefit-cost analysis. Awardees must have demonstrated a significant contribution to the theory and/or practice of benefit-cost analysis. While not essential, participation in SBCA, SBCA-sponsored events, and publication in the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis will be considered to be important aspects of an individual’s contribution. A candidate must be living at the time of nomination. Membership in the Society is not required. 

Any SBCA member may nominate a candidate for Fellow. SBCA looks to make the Fellows group as diverse as possible and welcomes nominations from around the world. Nominations should include a Curriculum Vitae of the nominee, a two-page nomination letter outlining what contributions the individual has made that warrant the award, and at least one additional letter of support from a second individual. In addition, members of the SBCA Board of Directors may nominate candidates that have not been otherwise nominated. Nominations are to be submitted by October 31 each year.

Submit your Fellows Nomination>>

Award Recipients

Past winners of SBCA’s Outstanding Achievement Award were the inaugural group of fellows. Four additional Fellows were selected for 2022. The SBCA Board of Directors expects to select approximately four Fellows in 2023, then up to two Fellows each year thereafter. 

		2023 Trudy Cameron University of Oregon
		2023 John Graham Indiana University
		2023 V. Kerry Smith Arizona State University
		2023 Thomas Sterner University of Gothenburg
		2023 Richard Zeckhauser Harvard University
		2022 Sir Partha Dasgupta The University of Cambridge
		2022 Jack Knetsch Simon Fraser University
		2022 Lisa Robinson Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard University
		2022 Robert Haveman University of Wisconsin–Madison
		2021 James K. Hammitt Harvard University
		2021 Al McGartland National Center for Environmental Economics
		2021 Maureen L. Cropper University of Maryland
		2021 Michael Jones-Lee Newcastle University
		2021 W. Kip Viscusi Vanderbilt University
		2021 David L. Weimer University of Wisconsin, Madison
		2021 Steve Aos Washington State Institute for Public Policy
		2021 Arnold Harberger UCLA

Outstanding Dissertation Award

The Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis has established an annual award for the best Ph.D. thesis dealing with the theory and/or practice of benefit-cost analysis. The award is intended to recognize outstanding work by promising new researchers in the field. It is accompanied by a $1,000 cash prize and the winner will be recognized at the SBCA annual meeting. In addition, recipients will be encouraged to submit a paper based on their dissertation to the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. The paper will undergo the standard journal peer-review process.

The range of topics for candidate dissertations is very broad, i.e., dissertations that would interest the Society's members, including, but not limited to:

Methods	Topical Areas
Benefit-cost analysis Cost-effectiveness analysis Cost analysis Regulatory impact analysis Risk-benefit analysis Applied welfare economic analysis Damage assessments	Civil and criminal justice Climate change Education and training Energy, natural resources, and environment Finance and financial markets Food and agriculture Health, health insurance, and health care International trade and development Safety and security Social welfare programs Taxation and government revenue generation Transportation and infrastructure Workforce and workplace

 

A dissertation will be eligible if it was successfully defended between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023, and has not previously been considered for the award. Eligible dissertations must have been accepted by an accredited institution of higher education in any country in fulfillment of a doctoral degree. The degree field is not limited to economics. Dissertations must be written in English.

Submissions will be reviewed by a Selection Committee appointed by the SBCA Board of Directors. Submissions will be evaluated based on the quality of the methodological work (theoretical or empirical), the contributions to the field, the quality of the exposition, and the relevance for policy.

The following materials are needed to apply:

• The applicant's name; the date, degree, and institution of the defended dissertation; and a URL from which a pdf of the dissertation submission can be downloaded.
• A 1,000-word statement from the applicant identifying the relevant portion(s) of the dissertation that should be considered for the award and the applicability of the work given the criteria noted above.
• A signed nomination letter from the dissertation committee chair or another committee member explaining the dissertation's originality and contribution to the field (pdf file preferred).
• The applicant's CV (pdf file preferred).

Submit your Dissertation>>

Submissions are due on October 31, 2023, by 5:00 pm Eastern United States time. Applicants will receive an acknowledgment that their submission was received and will be notified of the outcome by early December. 

Award Recipients

		2023 Rachel Dalafave, "Lifesaving Policies, Outcome, Spillover Effects, and How to Address Them (Vanderbilt University, 2023)
		2022 Majid (Seyedmajid) Hashemi, "The Economic Value of Electricity Reliability (Clemson University, 2022)
		2021 Gabriel Englander, "Empirical Essays on Natural Resource Exploitation (University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 2020)
		2020 Clayton J. Masterman, "An Empirical Analysis of Policy Responses to the Opioid Epidemic," (Vanderbilt University,  2019)

Jerry Ellig Award for Best Student Paper at the SBCA Annual Conference

Dr. Jerry Ellig was a research professor in the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. His untimely death in January 2021 was not only a great loss for his friends and colleagues but also to the general public who never knew him but were the beneficiaries of his insightful contributions to public policy and administration. He was a wonderful mentor to his many graduate students and junior colleagues. In addition, Jerry was a great communicator, able to take his academic work and translate it for different audiences, including through seminars, op-eds, short presentations, and classroom teaching.

To honor Jerry’s inspirational legacy, the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center established the Jerry Ellig Memorial Fund for Applied Policy Analysis. The fund has set up a recurring prize at the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis Annual Conference for the best graduate student paper presented at the SBCA Annual Conference that applies economic, law, political science, policy analysis, and/or public administration concepts to real policy problems. An Award Committee will review the student abstracts and presentations and make an award following each year’s annual conference. The winner will be announced in the SBCA newsletter and on the Society’s website. The winner will also receive a $1,000 cash prize.

For more information about this award or how to be considered, please contact the Society at [email protected].

Award Recipients

		2023 Fang-Yu Yeh, "Map Updates and Flood Events on Kentucky's Housing Market" (University of Kentucky) Abstract: Flood events are the most common and costly natural disasters in the U.S., affecting millions of individuals each year. At the end of July 2022, several counties in Eastern Kentucky were hit by the “1-in-1000 year” flood event, which claimed more than 30 deaths and destroyed hundreds of homes, bridges, and roads. Most residents in this area do not have flood insurance because they are not in a flood zone. With extreme weather trending more noticeably in recent years, assessing the flood risk belief associated with flood maps is important for land-use regulations and flood preparation plans. This paper contributes to the literature by studying the effects of both the flood map changes and flooding events on Kentucky’s housing market and by comparing the changes in flood discount between flood-prone areas and non-flood-prone areas. Using Zillow’s ZTRAX property transaction data and FEMA’s floodplain maps, I show that housing values decrease by 6.5% when a property is mapped into a floodplain in an area that has experienced a large flood within a year and increase by 4% when a property is removed from a flood zone in an area without flooding recently. However, the housing prices do not rebound when mapped out from a floodplain in a flood-prone area or drop when assigned into a flood zone in a less flood-prone area. The findings imply that it is important for FEMA to keep the flood maps updated as individuals update risk beliefs in response to map updates and recent flooding. With the increased frequency and intensity of floods due to climate change, the benefits of more frequent updates on the information allow individuals to assess their risks and communities to prepare for future floodplain management more accurately.

Richard Zerbe Distinguished Service Award

Voluntary organizations like the SBCA are created by, and thrive through, the efforts of individuals. More so than any other person, the SBCA owes its success to the efforts of Richard Zerbe. Not only did he conceive of the value that would be provided to scholars, practitioners, and society from an organization dedicated to promoting the appropriate use of BCA, he also took steps to create it. Working with the Evans School at the University of Washington and aided by the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation, he launched the SBCA with great success. The Board of Directors sought to honor his contributions by creating the Richard Zerbe Distinguished Service Award in 2014 to be awarded as appropriate to individuals who make significant contributions to helping the SBCA further its mission.

Award Recipients

		2023 Craig Thornton SBCA Past President
		2022 Jennifer Baxter SBCA Past Treasurer
		2021 Henrik Andersson Co-Leader, SBCA's European Expansion       Massimo Florio Co-Leader, SBCA's European Expansion
		2020 Glenn Blomquist Former Co-Editor, Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis
		2019 Fran Sussman Former SBCA Board Member
		2018 Susan Dudley SBCA Past President
		2017 Richard Belzer SBCA Past Treasurer/Secretary
		2016 Erika Dowd Former SBCA Executive Director
		2015 Lisa Robinson SBCA Past President
		2014 Scott Farrow Founding Editor, Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis
		2014 Richard Zerbe SBCA Founder and Past President

 

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Outstanding Achievement Award

In 2016, the SBCA Board of Directors created the Outstanding Achievement Award to be awarded as appropriate to individuals who make significant contributions to the field of benefit-cost analysis. 

Award Recipients

		2021 James K. Hammitt Harvard University
		2020 Al McGartland National Center for Environmental Economics
		2019 Maureen L. Cropper University of Maryland
		2019 Michael Jones-Lee Newcastle University
		2018 W. Kip Viscusi Vanderbilt University
		2018 David L. Weimer University of Wisconsin, Madison
		2017 Steve Aos Washington State Institute for Public Policy
		2016 Arnold Harberger UCLA