KATHMANDU, April 22: Parag Pathak, an American economist of Nepali origin, has bagged the prestigious ‘John Bates Clark Medal’ for his work on market design and educational policy.
The medal is awarded by the American Economic Association (AEA) each year to an American economist under the age of forty ‘who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.’
MIT professor of Nepali origin awarded John Bates Clark Medal
Pathak is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is considered to be a market-design expert who has extensively studied education while developing new policy mechanisms used across the US. Earlier in 2014, Pathak was also named one of the top 25 economists under the age of 45 by the International Monetary Fund.
“Pathak’s applied work in market design has led to significant improvements in the application of market-design tools to the assignment of students to public schools,” read a statement of the AEA posted in its website. “He has pushed the boundaries of known theory to make it sensitive to cognitive limits of participants and relevant to practical environments,” the statement added.
“This is an award on behalf of the whole subject of market design,” MIT News Office quoted Pathak as saying. “There are many people who are doing great work in this field,” he added.
