Rachel Croson, dean of the College of Social Science and Foundation Professor of Economics at Michigan State University, is the 2017 recipient of a national award honoring individuals who have furthered the status of women in the economics profession.
The Carolyn Shaw Bell Award is presented by the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession.
“Professor Croson is an accomplished scholar and gifted academic leader who has devoted an enormous amount of energy and creativity to mentoring women in economics,” the committee stated in its announcement of the award.
The committee considers Croson’s dedication to mentorship as vital to its efforts.
“Dr. Croson has been a champion for women economists in every position she has held and at every stage in her career,” Tanya Rosenblat, a University of Michigan economics scholar and one of Croson's many mentees, wrote in her nomination letter.
In all, seventeen women wrote in support of Croson’s nomination, including many students and mentees. The nomination letters were even more remarkable in that they included several from people who met her and spoke to her briefly yet found her advice and feedback to be profoundly helpful.
“She has an uncanny ability to cut through to the heart of a matter, speak for five minutes and completely straighten out your life,” one student said.
Croson, the committee says, “is one of the most influential experimental economists of her generation.” Her scholarship has centered on experimental research on bargaining and negotiation, public goods provision and exporting the experimental method to other disciplines. Her papers exploring gender differences in economic behavior have been widely cited.
Croson earned her doctorate in economics from Harvard University. Before coming to MSU, she was business dean at the University of Texas Arlington.
She also served as a faculty member at the University of Texas at Dallas and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a division director for two years with the National Science Foundation’s Social and Economic Sciences.
Croson’s distinguished record of service to the economics profession includes serving as associate editor for the American Economic Review and a panelist for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
