CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS – The Harvard Environmental Economics Program (HEEP) has awarded three prizes to Harvard University students for the best research papers addressing a topic in environmental, energy, or natural-resource economics — one prize each for an undergraduate paper or senior thesis, master’s student paper, and doctoral student paper. Each prize was accompanied by a monetary award.
HEEP is a University-wide initiative based in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government that seeks to develop innovative answers to today’s complex environmental challenges.
Robert Stavins, HEEP Director and A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), noted that “It is quite apparent that the students who won these prizes spent considerable time and effort in their research. Many of the submissions that didn’t win were also quite excellent, and it was difficult for the committee to exclude these from final consideration.”
The winners are:
The Ana Aguado Prize for the best paper by a doctoral student:
Sarah Armitage, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Economy and Government (Economics Track): “Technology Adoption and the Timing of Environmental Policy: Evidence from Efficient Lighting.” Sarah’s dissertation committee: James H. Stock, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard University (Co-chair); Joseph E. Aldy, Professor of the Practice of Public Policy, HKS (Co-chair); Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, HKS; and Robin Lee, Professor of Economics, Harvard University.
The Mossavar-Rahmani Center Prize for the Best Paper by a Master’s Degree Student:
Jacob Greenspon, Master in Public Policy (MPP) in International and Global Affairs candidate, 2022: “Spatial-skills Mismatch in the Decarbonization Job Transition: A Framework for Policy Response.” Paper based on Jacob’s Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE). PAE Advisor: Jeffrey Liebman, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Public Policy, HKS, PAE Seminar Leader: Matthew Bunn, James R. Schlesinger Professor of the Practice of Energy, National Security, and Foreign Policy. Client: Daniel Raimi, Fellow and Director, Equity in the Energy Transition Initiative, Resources for the Future.
The Enel Endowment Prize for the Best Senior Thesis or Undergraduate Paper:
Katherine Ricca, Bachelor of Arts in Economics (with a secondary concentration in Environmental Science and Public Policy), candidate, 2022: “Decarbonization in Doubt: Evaluating the Uncertainty of the Indirect Land Use Change Carbon Intensity Estimates of Corn Ethanol.” Senior Thesis presented to the Department of Economics. Thesis Advisor: James H. Stock, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard University
Further information about the prize-winners:
Sarah Armitage is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Economy and Government, with a disciplinary focus on environmental economics, industrial organization, and public finance. She will be an Economist Fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund during the 2022–2023 academic year and then will join the faculty at Boston University's Questrom School of Business in July 2023. Prior to graduate school, Sarah worked as a consultant at Industrial Economics, Inc., supporting state and federal government clients on a variety of environmental projects, and as a research assistant at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. She has also served as an Impact Fellow at Prime Coalition, overseeing Prime's inaugural impact audit of investments with gigaton-scale emissions reduction potential. She holds an M.Phil. in Economic and Social History from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and a B.A. in History from Yale University.
Jacob Greenspon is an MPP candidate in International and Global Affairs at HKS. He earned his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from McGill University and his M.A. in Economics from Queen’s University. He currently serves as Research Assistant for Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, HKS, and previously served as a Research Assistant at the Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. He has also worked as a Parliamentary Affairs Advisor in the Office of Canadian Senator Peter Harder and as the Michael Dukakis Fellow in the Colorado Governor’s Office for State Planning and Budget. He chairs the Canadian Student Caucus at the Kennedy School. Jacob will begin a D.Phil. program in Economics at the University of Oxford in fall 2022. He is currently a Research Assistant to Gordon Hanson, Peter Wertheim Professor in Urban Policy at HKS, working on the energy transition.
Katherine Ricca is a B.A. candidate at Harvard College with a concentration in Economics and a secondary concentration in Environmental Science and Public Policy. She served as an Intern at Vivid Economics in Washington D.C. where she identified key global innovation priorities in the agricultural sector to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. She also served as a Linear Algebra Course Assistant in the Department of Mathematics, Harvard University. Katherine was a Harvard College Scholar in 2019, a John Harvard Scholar in 2020 and 2021, and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 2021. Next year, she will be pursuing her Master of Science in Environmental Economics and Climate Change at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
About the sponsors and the prizes:
The Enel Endowment for Environmental Economics at Harvard University was established in February 2007 through a generous capital gift from Enel, a multinational energy company and one of the world’s leading integrated electricity and gas operators.
HEEP is based in the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School. The Center’s mission is to advance the state of knowledge and policy analysis concerning some of society’s most challenging problems at the interface of the public and private sectors.
Ana Aguado, for whom the doctoral prize is named, was a leader in European energy policy and business communities for twenty years, before passing away in October 2016. She was Secretary General of the European Distribution System Operators’ Association for Smart Grids from 2014 to 2016. Before holding that post, Ms. Aguado was Chief Executive Officer of Friends of the Supergrid, dedicated to building an integrated power grid in Europe.
For more information, please contact Jason Chapman, Program Manager: