John Dunlop Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Business and Government
The John Dunlop Thesis Prize in Business and Government is an annual award for Harvard undergraduates, provided by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard Kennedy School.
Established in 2007, the award is given to the Harvard College graduating senior who writes the best thesis on a challenging public policy issue at the interface of business and government. Papers that examine the business-government interface with respect to regulation, corporate responsibility, energy, the environment, health care, education, technology, and human rights are particularly encouraged, however papers on other topics will also be considered. A $2000 prize is provided to the winning entry.
To be considered for the 2025 John Dunlop Thesis Prize, please fill out this application. The deadline is May 22, 2025 at 12 noon; Entries must be submitted as PDFs to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu.
The prize is named after John T. Dunlop, the Lamont University Professor Emeritus, a widely respected labor economist who served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1969 to 1973. An adviser to many U.S. presidents, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dunlop was secretary of labor under Gerald Ford, serving from March 1975 to January 1976. In addition to serving as secretary of labor, Dunlop held many other government posts, including: director of the Cost of Living Council, (1973-74), chairman of the Construction Industry Stabilization Committee (1993-95), chair of the Massachusetts Joint Labor- Management Committee for Municipal Police and Firefighters (1977-2003) and Chair of the Commission on Migratory Farm Labor (1984-2003). Dunlop served as the second director of the Center for Business and Government from 1987 to 1991. The Center, renamed in 2005 as the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, focuses on policy issues at the intersection of business and government. Dunlop died in 2003.
2024
- Aden Barton, The Causal Effect of Welfare Retrenchment: Evidence from Medicaid and SNAP
- Press release can be found here.
2024 Dunlop Undergraduate Thesis Prize winner Aden Barton.
2023
- Ishan Bhatt, Yes, Literally, In My Backyard: The Effect of "Gently" Upzoning Single-Family Neighborhoods.
- Press release can be found here.
2023 Dunlop Undergraduate Thesis Prize winner Ishan Bhatt.
2022
- Alejandro Jimenez, Political Economy of Sovereign Debt Restructuring: Burden-Sharing, Haircuts, and the Creditor’s Outside Option
- Press release can be found here.
2022 Dunlop Undergraduate Thesis Prize winner Alejandro Jimenez.
Additionally, M-RCBG awarded one honorable mentions in 2022:
- Regan Brady, When to Hold ’Em, When to Fold ’Em: Analyzing Multiple Equilibria Models of Sovereign Default
2021
- Sewon Park, Jobs Saved by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): The Importance of Smaller Loans, Flexible Program Requirements, and Targeting
- Claire Shi, A Story of Human Capital: Why the Paycheck Protection Program Had Huge Geographic Disparities
Press release can be found here.
2021 Dunlop Undergraduate Thesis Prize winners Sewon Park (left) and Claire Shi (right).
Additionally, M-RCBG awarded three honorable mentions in 2021. They included:
- Yashvardhan Bardoloi, The Uncertain Cost of Uncertainty: An Inquiry into Exchange Rate Volatility and Bilateral Trade Flows
- Myer Johnson-Potter, Congress at a Climate Crossroads: Legislative Pathways for Decarbonization in the United States
Keshav Rastogi, The Effects of Experience and Technological Innovation in the Offshore Wind Industry
2020
- Laura Nicolae, The Effects of Liquidity Regulation on Bank Demand for Reserves and the Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet Policy.
- Press release can be found here.
Additionally, M-RCBG awarded five honorable mentions in 2020. They included:
Dhruv Gupta, Bike-Sharing is Transit: Building Tools to Plan and Optimize Bike-Sharing Networks
Pedro Farias, Riding with Charlie: Public Transportation Policy and Its Impact on Business and Road Safety in Massachusetts
Divya Arya, Does Betting on Currencies Make Them Riskier? The Carry Trade and Endogenous Risk
Luis Viceira, Moral Values and Corporate Social Responsibility
2019
- Co-winner: Jacqueline Chen, Pharmer's Market: How Biosimilars are Shaking Up the Pharmaceutical Landscape
- Co-winner: Jack Smith, California Compliance Offsets: Problematic Protocols and Buyer Behavior
- Press release can be found here.
Additionally, M-RCBG awarded six honorable mentions in 2019. They included:
Victor C. Agbafe, The Connection Between State Policies and Health Outcomes: How State Unemployment Insurance Generosity Affects Type II Diabetes Incidence and Outcomes
Ryan Davis, Fungibility of In-Kind Transfers: Evidence from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Christina Neckermann, The End of Bilateralism in Europe? An Interest-Based Account of Franco-German Divergence in the Construction of the European Banking Union
Ben Porter, Pentagon Pork: Evidence of Quid-Pro-Quo Defense Spending from Federal Procurement Contracts
Nina Vendhan, The Road Back to Nalanda: The Impact of India’s Right to Education Act on Government Schools and a Market Design Proposal for Its Quota Admissions
2018
- Co-winner: Samarth Gupta, The Rent is Too Damn High and the Coverage is Too Damn Low: Evidence from Medicaid Expansion and Eviction Rates
- Co-winner: Johnny Tang,
- Press release can be found here.
2017
- Dhruva Bhat, "Harbinger of a New Era"? Evaluating the Effect of India's Right to Education Act on Learning Outcomes
- Honorable Mention: Wenting Gao, Unpacking Global Value Chains: A Country-Sector Level Analysis on the Implications of Global Value Chain Trade on Income Distribution for Factors of Production
- Press release can be found here.
2016
- Co-winner: Auden Laurence, Access for All? The Political Economy of Support for Early Childhood Education
- Co-winner: Michael Loughlin, Behavioral Responses to Electricity Prices: Evidence from Jamaica
- Co-Winner: Anchisa Pongmanavuth, Credit Crisis 3.0? An Assessment of the Macroeconomic Risk of Corporate Debt
2015
- Jeffrey J. Wang, s
2014
2013
- Co-winner: Andrew Cohen, The Shale Gas Paradox: Assessing the Impacts of the Shale Gas Revolution on Electricity Markets and Climate Change
- Co-winner: Lauren Dai, The Comparative Advantage of Nations: How Global Supply Chains Change Our Understanding of Comparative Advantage
2012
2011
- Jackson Salovaara, Coal to Natural Gas Fuel Switching and CO2 Emissions Reduction
- Honorable mention: Samuel Barr, Deliberative Democracy and Corporate Political Advertising
2010
- Daniel Eric Herz-Roiphe, Is the Price Right? Reexamining the Relationship Between Age and the Value of Statistical Life
- Honorable mention: Colin Motley, The Commercial Paper Funding Facility: Impact and What It Tells US about the Crisis in Commercial Paper from 2007-2009
2008
- Michael Sperling, The Unintended Consequences of Government Interventions in the Domestic Ethanol Market
- Honorable mention: David R. Porter, Making Trade Fair: The Negotiation and Implementation of NAFTA Chapter 20
2007
- Pablo M. Tsutsumi, Domestic Intentions, International Repercussions: An Empirical Study on the Impact of SOX on Latin American ADRs
- Honorable mention: Elina Tetelbaum, A Sobering Look at How Minimum Legal Drinking Age Laws Affect Traffic Fatalities