ECON Associate Professor, Alumnus Co-Author Receive European Economic Association’s MinE Best Paper Award

Ethan Kaplan, an associate professor in the University of Maryland Department of Economics (ECON), Cody Tuttle, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, and Jorg Spenkuch, an associate professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Northwestern University, recently received the European Economic Association’s (EEA) MinE Best Paper Award—given to the best LGBTQ+, race/ethnicity/religion and/or disabilities-focused paper presented at the annual EEA meetings. 

Their winning paper explores how a 1974 federal decision to have Kentucky desegregate students by busing them according to the first letter of their last name may have influenced those students’ political beliefs.

“I am very happy to see our joint work recognized by the European Economic Association," said Kaplan. "Our work shows the long run political impacts of racial integration. As segregation in schools in the United States has been increasing again and during a time of growing political turbulence, understanding the long run political implications of racial integration are more important than ever.”

One of Kaplan’s co-authors, Cody Tuttle, is a UMD ECON alumnus, having graduated with a Ph.D. in 2020.  

“Ethan and Cody’s research is a great example of the type of sophisticated empirical research addressing critical public policy questions that is the foundation of our department’s reputation.  We have a particularly strong tradition in both political economy and education research, focused on both the U.S. and the rest of the world, with our faculty producing excellent research and inspiring graduate students,” said Andrew Sweeting, ECON professor and department chair. “Ethan’s research spans studies of political partisanship, media, economic inequality and government programs to support unemployed and low-wage workers. Cody’s UMD thesis, which won a University-level Distinguished Dissertation Award, examined racial disparities in the prosecution of drug-possession offenses.”

As recipients of the MinE Best Paper Award, the researchers will collectively receive €5,000—just under $5,500—from the Hub for Equal Representation.

According to a release on the EEA’s website, Kaplan and his coauthors were presented with the award because: “They provide a well identified study of important effects of segregation, and hence of desegregation policies. … We have chosen this paper because of the salience in policy debates also in Europe on the consequences of segregation of ethnic groups in cities.”

With support from the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation, the authors have also conducted a survey to understand whether the partisan effects of bussing were additionally accompanied by attitudinal shifts on race, and on a range of policy issues. They plan to post an updated version of the paper incorporating findings from that survey later this fall.

"It's been exciting to explore this school desegregation episode in Jefferson County with a particularly in-depth approach,” said Tuttle. “We've linked archival records from school yearbooks and commencement programs, administrative voter data, and even a new survey of the people involved. As a result, we're able to learn a lot about the experiences of these individuals and how those experiences shifted their attitudes long-term. I'm grateful to be recognized for this work, and it's fulfilling to see that it's resonating with others in the field.”

The main photo shows Ethan Kaplan (left) and Cody Tuttle (right)

Published on Wed, Aug 30, 2023 - 9:43AM