H. Gregg Lewis Prize

H. Gregg Lewis (1914-1992) was among the founders of modern labor economics.

As a continuing reminder of his strong interest in students and in new developments in labor economics, the Journal of Labor Economics in 1994 established the H. Gregg Lewis Prize, awarded biennially to the author(s) of the best article published in the Journal during the previous two years.

The prize consists of a $2,500 monetary award and a plaque. The winner(s) are selected by a committee appointed by the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. The prize is awarded during a special session of the SOLE meetings in even-numbered years.

At a 1993 Memorial, students and colleagues Orley Ashenfelter, Sherwin Rosen, Richard Freeman, and Marjorie McElroy spoke about Lewis and his influence. These comments were published in the January 1994 issue of JOLE.

Past Recipients

1990-91 Robert Gibbons and Lawrence F. Katz
“Layoffs and Lemons”
1992-93 James N. Brown and Audrey Light
“Interpreting Panel Data on Job Tenure”
1994-95 John Bound, Charles Brown, Greg J. Duncan, and Willard L. Rodgers: “Evidence on the Validity of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Labor Market Data”
1996-97 Christina H. Paxson and Nachum Sicherman
“The Dynamics of Job Mobility and Dual Job Holding”
1998-99 Derek A. Neal
“The Complexity of Job Mobility among Young Men”
2000-01 H. Lorne Carmichael and W. Bentley MacLeod
“Worker Cooperation and the Ratchet Effect”
2002-03 Eric D. Gould
“Rising Wage Inequality, Comparative Advantage, and the Growing Importance of General Skills in the United States”
2004-05 Pascal Courty and Gerald Marschke
“An Empirical Investigation of Gaming Responses to Explicit Performance Incentives”
2006-07 Fabian Lange
“The Speed of Employer Learning”
2008-09 Maxim Poletaev and Chris Robinson 
“Human Capital Specificity: Evidence from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and Displaced Worker Surveys, 1984-2000”
2010-2011 William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln 
“The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Innovation”
2012-2013 Laura Giuliano
“Minimum Wage Effects on Employment, Substitution, and Teenage Labor Supply: Evidence from Personnel Data”
2014-2015 Jessica Pan
“Gender Segregation in Occupations: The Role of Tipping and Social Interactions”
2016-2017 Lena Hensvik and Oskar Nordström Skans
“Social Networks, Employee Selection, and Labor Market Outcomes”
2018-2019 Ankita Patnaik
"Reserving Time for Daddy: The Consequences of Fathers' Quotas"
2020-2021 Jennifer Doleac and Benjamin Hansen 
"The Unintended Consequences of Ban the Box: Statistical Discrimination and Employment Outcomes When Criminal Histories are Hidden"