Launched in 2007, this annual prize is awarded for the best non-solicited paper published in The Economic Journal by an author who has completed their PhD in the last five years. The winner, selected by the Editors of the EJ, is awarded £2000.
The Austin Robinson Prize commemorates the contribution of made by Sir Austin Robinson (1897-1993) to both economics and The Economic Journal . Educated at Cambridge, Robinson became a fellow of Sidney Sussex College. He made a significant contribution to the field of applied economics. In 1942 he acted as Economic Adviser at the War Cabinet, and later worked as adviser to the Board of Trade under Sir Stafford Cripps before returning to his position at Cambridge. Robinson worked tirelessly for the Economic Journal, beginning as Assistant Editor under John Maynard Keynes in 1934. In 1944 he took up the role of Joint Editor alongside Roy Harrod, and a year later became secretary of the Royal Economic Society, positions he held until his retirement in 1970. During his 36 years at the Economic Journal, Robinson proof read approximately 30,000 pages, wrote about 6000 short notes on books, published around 1000 articles and 3000 reviews. Robinson received a knighthood in 1975.
• Alex Cairncross, ‘Austin Robinson’, Economic Journal, 104 (July), 1994, 903-915. JSTOR
• Economic Journal: Essays in Honour of Austin Robinson, 82, No. 325 (Mar), 1972 JSTOR
• List of papers by Sir Austin Robinson held in Cambridge Libraries
The 2012 Austin Robinson Prize for the best non-solicited paper published in The Economic Journal has been awarded to Wen-Tai Hsu for his paper Central Place Theory and City Size Distribution Volume 122, Issue 563, pages 903–932. His paper is available to view for free.
Wen-Tai received his award at the RES Conference 2013.
Guy Michaels
The Long Term Consequences of Resource-Based Specialisation
Vol 121, p31
Manuel Oechslin
Government Revenues and Economic Growth in Weakly Institutionalised States
Vol 120, p631
Simon Luechinger
Valuing Air Quality Using the Life Satisfaction Approach
Vol 119, p482
Elias Papaioannou and Gregorios Siourounis
Democratization and Growth
Vol 118, p1520
Andrew Sweeting
Market Power in the England and Wales Wholesale Electricity Market 1995-2000
Vol 117, p654
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Stephanie Seavers
Publishing Editor
Tel: 0207 291 4886
ej@ifs.org.uk