John Bates Clark Medal
The John Bates Clark Medal is an award given by the American Economic Association to recognize an outstanding economist under the age of forty. It has been described as the equivalent to a Nobel prize in economics and is given to scholars who have made significant contributions to the field. The medal is named after one of the founding fathers of neoclassical economics, John Bates Clark.
The medal was first awarded in 1947 to Paul Samuelson and the most recent recipient is Melissa Kearney in 2020. The award is traditionally presented at the annual meetings of the AEA, though due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 it was presented virtually.
The award is highly prestigious and is viewed as being a good indication of potential Nobel laureates in the future, with 23 of its recipients going on to receive the Nobel prize in Economics. It is also an indication of the wide geographical spread of economics, with recipients hailing from countries ranging from the United States to Uruguay to Jordan.
Past recipients of the medal have made significant contributions to the field. These include contributions to public finance, macroeconomics, the economics of information, Indias economic reform programme, and the development of electricity markets.
The medal also serves as an opportunity to recognize the important work of up and coming economists who may not have had the same recognition that more established scholars tend to receive. For example, in 2020, Lauren Schmitz Fellows was awarded the medal in recognition of her important work on racial and gender disparities in business.
The John Bates Clark medal is an important acknowledgement of the contributions that economists have made to the field and serves to recognize the next generation of researchers who will help shape the future of economics.
