Professor David Autor is a 2013 recipient of the James A. and Ruth Levitan Award for Excellence in Teaching in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. This award recognizes SHASS teachers - professors, lecturers, and graduate teaching assistants - who make a profound difference in the educational experience of MIT undergraduates. Nominations are made, by students themselves, through the course of the academic year, and reflect the positive role that our educators play in the day-to-day, week-to-week efforts of MIT students as they engage with and excel in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics Bengt Holmstrom and Annual Visiting Professor Jean Tirole (Toulouse School of Economics) have been awarded the 3rd Stephen A. Ross Prize in Financial Economics for their paper "Private and Public Supply of Liquidity," published in the Journal of Political Economy in 1998. The article has made two fundamental contributions to our understanding of liquidity needs and liquidity provision in a market economy. First, it developed a framework for analysing the need of firms to have access to liquidity in order to meet uncertain payment obligations. Second, the paper has shown that private institutions, markets or intermediaries, may be unable to provide for these needs in an efficient manner, in which case government intervention can improve on market outcomes. The Ross Prize is awarded by the Foundation for the Advancement of Research in Financial Economics (FARFE), which is committed to supporting and encouraging fundamental research in financial economics and to facilitating productive interaction between research and practice in finance. The Ross prize, created in honor of MIT's Franco Modigliani Professor of Financial Economics Stephen A. Ross, is awarded for an important research contribution in financial economics.

Professor Emeritus Stanley Fischer has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economics Association. The Award of Distinguished Fellow was instituted in 1965. Past presidents of the Association shall be Distinguished Fellows. Additional Distinguished Fellows may be elected, but not more than four in any one calendar year from economists of high distinction in the United States and Canada. Professor Fischer joins Professor Jerry Hausman and Professor Emeritus Paul Joskow as 2013 recipients of the Award of Distinguished Fellow.

Jerry Hausman, the John & Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics, has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economics Association. The Award of Distinguished Fellow was instituted in 1965. Past presidents of the Association shall be Distinguished Fellows. Additional Distinguished Fellows may be elected, but not more than four in any one calendar year from economists of high distinction in the United States and Canada. Professor Hausman joins Professor Emeritus Stanley Fischer and Professor Emeritus Paul Joskow as 2013 recipients of the Award of Distinguished Fellow.

Paul Joskow, the Elizabeth & James Killian Professor of Economics and Management, Emeritus, has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economics Association. The Award of Distinguished Fellow was instituted in 1965. Past presidents of the Association shall be Distinguished Fellows. Additional Distinguished Fellows may be elected, but not more than four in any one calendar year from economists of high distinction in the United States and Canada. Professor Joskow joins Professor Jerry Hausman and Professor Emeritus Stanley Fischer as 2013 recipients of the Award of Distinguished Fellow.

Economists often talk about "moral hazard," the idea that people’s behavior changes in the presence of insurance. In finance, for instance, investors may take more risks if they know they will be bailed out, the subject of ongoing political controversy. When it comes to health insurance, the existence of moral hazard is a more matter-of-fact issue: When people get health insurance, they use more medical care, as shown by research including a recent randomized study on the impact of Medicaid, which MIT economist Amy Finkelstein helped lead.

Professor Esther Duflo and physician Alfred Sommer will share the 2013 Dan David prize for the "future" dimension, for breakthroughs that hold great promise for the world's improvement. The Dan David Prize recognizes and encourages innovative and interdisciplinary research that cuts across traditional boundaries and paradigms. It aims to foster universal values of excellence, creativity, justice, democracy and progress and to promote the scientific, technological and humanistic achievements that advance and improve our world. The prizes are granted to individuals or institutions with proven, exceptional, distinct excellence in the sciences, arts, and humanities that have made an outstanding contribution to humanity on the basis of merit, without discrimination of gender, race, ethnicity, color, religion, language, nationality, disability, or political affiliation. (Photo © Patrick Imbert)

Dr. David Donaldson has received an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. These fellowships are awarded yearly to researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

Dr. Anna Mikusheva has received an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. These fellowships are awarded yearly to researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

A new field experiment, co-authored by MIT economist Esther Duflo, shows just how much access to clean water matters to people. Residents of Morocco, the experiment demonstrates, are willing to take out loans and pay twice as much for water per month in order to have it piped into their homes. And despite the dent in their bottom-line finances, people in households that gain running water report significant improvements in well-being and happiness.

Bengt Holmstrom has been named a Fellow of the American Finance Association. The designation of Fellow recognizes distinguished and sustained contributions to the field of Finance. Professor Holmstrom's research has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of incentives, the theory of the firm, corporate governance, liquidity, and financial crises.

President Barack Obama has announced he intends to appoint MIT Professor Esther Duflo to the President's Global Development Council. Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, and a founder and director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).