R. K. Cho Economics Prize

The R. K. Cho Economics Prize (조락교경제학상) is one of the most prestigious awards to economists, which is awarded by Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. 

It has been awarded to scholars in the field of economics who have contributed to the development of scholarship and education. As of 2024, the prize includes a plaque, a medal, and a monetary award of 100 million KRW (approximately, 90K USD). 

It was established in 2007 with an endowment from R. K. Cho, the president of Samryoong Co. and the chairman of Yongwoon Foundation as well as an alumnus of Yonsei University's Economics Department. Cho was motivated to create the prize after seeing the results of his prior humanities-focused donations to Yonsei University and hoped the prize could help to connect students of his alma mater and famous South Korean economists overseas. Originally awarded only to South Korean citizens, in 2015 the prize was opened to foreign scholars as well.

This year's recipient

We are proud to announce that Professor Susan Athey (Stanford University) is this year's recipient of the R. K. Cho Economics Prize! 

Professor Susan Athey is a distinguished economist known for her pioneering work at the intersection of technology and economics. Her research has significantly shaped our understanding of the economics of digitization, marketplace design, dynamic mechanism design, and the application of machine learning to economic research. 

Professor Athey received the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to an economist under the age of forty who has made the greatest contribution to the field. She was the 2023 President of the American Economics Association. She has also been recognized as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society. 

Professor Athey has played a vital role in the tech industry and impacted real-world policies. She served as a chief economist for Microsoft for six years and has been on the boards of multiple technology firms. She also served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and as a long-term advisor to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests. 

Professor Athey continues to be a leading voice in economics, shaping both research and policy agendas worldwide.

Past recipients

2023: John A. List (University of Chicago) for his pioneering contributions to field experiments in economics.

2022: Yuriy Gorodnichenko (University of California Berkeley) for his contributions to macroeconomics by enhancing our understanding of aggregate implications of informational frictions, effects of fiscal policy, and monetary policy.

2020: Valerie A. Ramey  (University of California San Diego) for her contributions to macroeconomics, including economic fluctuations, effects of fiscal policy, inventory behavior of firms, and propagation mechanism of various shocks.

2018: Hyungsik Roger Moon (University of Southern California & Yonsei University) for his contributions to theoretical works on panel data.

2017: Michihiro Kandori (University of Tokyo) for his contributions to the theory of social norms, convention, and cooperation.

2016: Quang Vuong (New York University) for his contributions to work in econometric model selection with the Vuong test.

2015: Richard Rogerson (Princeton University) for his contributions to work in the area of macroeconomics, as well as labor and public economics.

2014: Jay-pil Choi (Michigan State University & Yonsei University) for his theoretical contributions to the economic effect of innovations and antitrust.

2013: Yongsung Chang (University of Rochester & Yonsei University) for his contributions to work in macroeconomics with labor markets.

2012: In-koo Cho (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) for his contributions to work in game theory.

2011: Jinyong Hahn (University of California, Los Angeles) for his contributions to work in developing methodologies to analyze micro-econometric data. 

2010: Joon Y. Park (Indiana University) for his contributions to work in nonstationary time series and financial econometrics.

2009: Hyun-Song Shin (Princeton University) for his contributions to work in financial crises and financial stability.

2008: Yeon-Koo Che (Columbia University) for his contributions to work in mechanism design.