The IZA Prize in Labor Economics (2002–2020) was a prestigious award in the field of labor economics. The

Institute for the Study of Labor An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

awarded a prize each year (from 2016 on every two years in turn with the IZA Young Labor Economist Award) for outstanding academic achievement in the field of labor economics. The IZA Prize in Labor Economics was the only international science prize awarded exclusively to labor economists was considered the most important award in labor economics worldwide. The prize was awarded through a nomination process and decided upon by the IZA Prize Committee, which consisted of internationally renowned labor economists. As a part of the prize, IZA Prize Laureates contributed a volume as an overview of their most significant findings to the IZA Prize in Labor Economics Series published by

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Funding and prize components

The IZA Prize in Labor Economics consisted of a prize medal and a cash award of 50,000 euros. This provides the monetary support for the recipients' past and future research and is meant to stimulate further labor market research.

Nomination and selection process

IZA has a worldwide network of over 1,300 labor economists who collaborate as research fellows with the institute. Each year they nominate candidates for the IZA Prize in Labor Economics from the research and work of their peers and colleagues. The nominations are reviewed by the IZA Prize Committee, which consists of IZA representatives, Research Fellows and prominent international labor economists.

IZA Prize Committee

Five Nobel laureates in Economics have served as members of the Prize Committee,

George Akerlof George Arthur Akerlof (born June 17, 1940) is an American economist and a university professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Koshland Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. ...

Gary Becker Gary Stanley Becker (; December 2, 1930 – May 3, 2014) was an American economist who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, and was a leader of ...

James Heckman James Joseph Heckman (born April 19, 1944) is an American economist and Nobel laureate who serves as the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also a professor at the college, a pro ...

Joseph Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, political activist, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2 ...

and

David Card David Edward Card (born 1956) is a Canadian-American labour economist and the Class of 1950 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been since 1997. He was awarded half of the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in ...

. The committee was coordinated by Daniel S. Hamermesh. Final members, besides Hamermesh were: Francine D. Blau (

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Richard Blundell Sir Richard William Blundell CBE FBA (born 1 May 1952 in Shoreham-by-Sea) is a British economist and econometrician. Blundell is the David Ricardo Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Economics of University College London and ...

(

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

George Borjas George Jesus Borjas ( born Jorge Jesús Borjas, October 15, 1950) is a Cuban-American economist and the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has been described as "America’s leading immigr ...

(

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

), and

Shelly Lundberg Shelly J. Lundberg is an economist and currently holds the positions of Leonard Broom Professor of Demography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she serves as associate director of the Broom Center for Demography. Lundberg is one ...

(

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

IZA Prize in Labor Economics Series

As a part of the IZA Prize in Labor Economics from 2007 to 2019 each Laureate produced a volume for the IZA Prize in Labor Economics Book Series consisting of their most significant findings. The Series covers a broad range of important issues in labor economics. The series is published by

IZA Prize Laureates

The winners of the IZA Prize include a number of influential labor economists who are active in policy advice. For example,

Edward Lazear Edward Paul Lazear (, ; August 17, 1948November 23, 2020) was an American economist, the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the Davies Family Professor of Economics at Stanford Gradu ...

was Chairman of the

Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the president of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...

under President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

Alan Krueger Alan Bennett Krueger (September 17, 1960 – March 16, 2019) was an American economist who was the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served ...

was nominated for the same post by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

References

External links

IZA Prize homepage
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122114013/http://www.iza.org/prize , date=2008-11-22
IZA Prize Series
at OUP (archived 2 January 2011) Economics awards Awards established in 2002 Awards disestablished in 2020 German science and technology awards