April 13, 2021
The Upjohn Institute today announced the winners of its 2021 Early Career Research Awards. Sixteen researchers received awards totaling $80,000 to carry out policy-relevant research on labor market issues.
“We’re very pleased to help fund projects by some of the most talented early-career scholars on employment issues,” said Susan Houseman, the Upjohn Institute’s vice president and director of research. “From examining the impacts of the gig economy on workforce participation and social insurance, to exploring how minimum wages affect the types of workers hired, to investigating the mechanisms behind the wage penalty women with children experience, the research sponsored by this year’s Early Career Research Awards will enhance our knowledge of employment policies and contribute to the Upjohn Institute’s mission of supporting cutting-edge employment research to inform policy and practice.”
The Upjohn Institute, which instituted the Early Career Research Awards in 2007, received a record 84 applications for the award this year. To date, the Institute has supported more than 200 young scholars through this program.
Awards provide up to $5,000 to untenured faculty within six years of having earned a doctorate degree. The Institute encourages research proposals on all issues related to labor markets and public workforce policy. This year's winners are listed in the table below.
View a list of past ECRA winners and summaries of their projects here.
The deadline to apply for each year's awards comes in January, with winners announced in April.
Early Career Research Award recipients are expected to write a research paper based on the funded work and submit the paper for the Institute’s working paper series, which also are submitted to SSRN and listed with RePEc. Paper summaries also are considered for publication in the Institute’s policy brief series and newsletter, Employment Research. The Institute encourages authors to submit their ECRA-supported papers to peer-reviewed journals.