2026-2027 ACES DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

ACES is pleased to accept applications for the 2026-2027 ACES Dissertation Fellowship. To encourage research on comparative economics, and to recognize the fundamental contributions of Gerard Roland to the field, the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES) established the annual Gerard Roland Dissertation Fellowship in 2020 to support PhD students. For the 2026-2027 academic year, ACES once again welcomes applications from scholars working in fields primarily related to:

i) development/transition economics; ii) comparative institutions; iii) political economy; and iv) economics of culture.

Other topics emphasizing theory, methods or implications of comparative economics are accepted, too. Students working in related fields are encouraged to apply.

The deadline is April 15 at 11:59 pm EST. Please see the full Call for Applications for more information and application instructions.

"Long-Term Economic Effects of Populist Legal Reforms: Evidence from Argentina" by Maximiliano Marzetti & Rok Spruk wins 2025 bergson prize

January 6, 2026

The Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES) announced the winner of its 2025 Bergson Prize for Best Paper in Comparative Economic Studies on January 4 at its annual members' meeting at the Allied Social Sciences Associations (ASSA). "Long-Term Economic Effects of Populist Legal Reforms: Evidence from Argentina," by Maximiliano Marzetti & Rok Spruk, was awarded the latest prize after a review and vote by the ACES Board in 2025.

In this paper, we examine the consequences of populist government for long-term economic growth and development. To this end, we estimate the long-term growth impact of the Juan Péron’s political rule in Argentina, which led to a comprehensive overhaul of the institutional framework laid by the Argentine founding fathers in the 1853 Constitution. Our hypothesis is that the progressive substitution of a growth-enhancing institutional framework by exclusionary growth-distorting frameworks explains Argentina’s economic decline from one the world’s richest countries on the eve of World War I to an underdeveloped nation in the present day. We emphasize the erosion of the rule of law and restraint of economic freedom during Perón’s first government (1943–1955) as two fundamental coadjutant causes of Argentina’s decline. The populist legal reforms of Perón had long-lasting adverse economic effects. By comparing Argentina’s pre-Péron growth trajectory with a donor pool of 58 countries for the period 1860–2015, we estimate the counterfactual scenario without Péron’s reforms. A variety of synthetic control estimates uncover substantial negative effects of the weakening of the rule of law and the populist reforms that began in 1940s on the trajectory of economic growth and development. The populist overhaul negated the economic growth advantages inherent in the 1853 Alberdian constitution. Without the short-sighted populist Peron episodes, Argentina would be a rich country down to the present day with per capita income comparable to southern European countries. We also perform a series of randomization inferences and a battery of placebo analyses, which confirm our results.

The Bergson Prize is named after Abram Bergson, a pioneer of comparative economics, and is awarded bi-annually to the paper judged by ACES to be the best published in Comparative Economic Studies in the preceding two years.   

The authors shared a note of thanks read at the annual meeting: 

Esteemed Colleagues,

A recurring theme in economic history is that serious work begins not with celebration, but with responsibility. In that spirit, we accept the Bergson Prize with deep gratitude and humility.

This paper was motivated by a question that lies at the very heart of comparative economics: how do legal and constitutional choices made at critical historical junctures shape economic destinies not just for years, but for generations?

Argentina offers a uniquely instructive case. Once among the world’s richest economies, it experienced a dramatic reversal not because of war or natural catastrophe, but through the gradual erosion of the institutional foundations that had once underpinned growth. By reconstructing a long-run counterfactual trajectory, this study seeks to make visible the economic cost of dismantling the rule of law, weakening economic freedom, and replacing constitutional restraint with ad hoc populist discretion.

Methodologically, the paper treats history not as a sequence of anecdotes, but as data, allowing us to compare what was with what might have been. Substantively, the results point to a sobering conclusion. Institutional degradation is not merely distortionary in the short run. It can permanently negate the growth advantages conferred by sound constitutional design.

Esteemed scholars of political economy have often emphasized that institutions reveal their true value precisely when they are tested under pressure. Comparative economics, at its best, performs a similar function: it asks us to measure carefully, to resist easy narratives, and to remember that prosperity rests on institutional restraints that are often invisible precisely because they work.

We are deeply indebted to the editors, referees, and colleagues whose intellectual rigor strengthened this work, and to the Association for Comparative Economic Studies for sustaining a scholarly community that values long-run evidence, institutional seriousness, and analytical honesty.

We accept this prize not as a culmination, but as an obligation to continue pursuing comparative research that is empirically rigorous, historically grounded, and attentive to the institutional choices that shape economic lives across generations. To borrow a formulation rooted in a well-known maxim from Pirkei Avot: the work is never finished, it is only entrusted to the next stage.

Thank you

Rok Spruk and Maximilliano Marzetti

Comparative Economic Studies editor earns two awards for service

ACES is pleased to share this recognition of the excellent work of Nauro Campos, editor-in-chief of Comparative Economic Studies, who received an Editorial Contribution Award and an Author Service Award from Springer Nature for his contributions to CES. Dr. Campos is Professor of Economics at University College London, and has served as editor-in-chief of Comparative Economic Studies since 2018. We applaud Nauro for his invaluable service to the journal and the Association, and for this well-deserved recognition.

2025-2026 ACES Dissertation Fellowship Winner

The Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES) is pleased to announce the recipient of its 2025-2026 Dissertation Research Fellowship.

After thorough review of applications, submitted papers, and letters of recommendation, the five-person committee has awarded the fellowship to Matthias Weigand!

Matthias Weigand is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at Harvard University, with a focus on economic history and political economy. His research investigates how state institutions take shape, and how these transformations influence economic development. His recent work explores how crises reshape state organization and how business coordination interacts with industrialization. Prior to graduate school, he was a pre-doctoral fellow in economics at Brown University and studied mathematics and economic history at the University of Oxford. He holds a B.Sc. in economics from LMU Munich.

ACES is also pleased to offer a runner-up Research Award to Nancy Wang of MIT.

Nancy Wang is a PhD candidate in economics at MIT. She does research in behavioral and labor economics, with a focus on the digital economy. Her current research explores how social media algorithms interact with behavioral biases to influence norms and behavior, and how employer beliefs shape hiring and equity in the labor market for high-skilled workers. Prior to the PhD, Nancy graduated from MIT with SBs in chemical-biological engineering and mathematical economics and was a pre-doctoral fellow in genoeconomics at the NBER. 

We wish to thank all applicants for contributing to a strong pool this year, all the ACES affiliates who helped circulate the call for applications to a wide applicant base, and last but not least to our review committee who tirelessly viewed and reviewed applications this spring.

The ACES Dissertation Fellowship, launched for the 2020-2021 academic year, supports an emerging scholar in the field with a generous stipend and travel fund as they complete their dissertation. The selection committee consists of Michael Callen (London School of Economics), Filipe Campante (Johns Hopkins University), Vasiliki Fouka (Stanford University), Sara Lowes (University of California, San Diego), and Noam Yuchtman (University of Oxford). Applications are accepted typically February through mid-April, and the application period is announced through our website, social media, and affiliate network mailing list. You may review the most recent call for applications for more details.

Call for Panels: ACES @ ASSA 2026

The Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES) is accepting proposals for its sessions at the meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Associations to be held in Philadelphia, PA, on January 3-5, 2026. 

Members of ACES wishing to participate should submit proposals for entire panels around any theme in comparative economics (e.g., political economy, economic development, institutional economics, cultural economics, economic history, etc.).  Papers presented in these ACES sessions will be considered (if you’d like) for a special issue of Comparative Economic Studies. Please do not submit individual papers, as we cannot accommodate these, but instead submit a collection of 3-4 papers that will form a single panel session. You may refer to our website for examples of sessions from previous years: https://www.acesecon.org/conferences

Submission information:

1. Submissions are accepted only from current members or affiliates of the ACES in the form of panels. Any paper submitted as a panel submission must have at least one author who is a current member or affiliate of ACES. Information regarding our membership and affiliate tiers is available online: https://www.acesecon.org/join. Submissions that do not conform to this rule will not be considered, and Individual papers submitted will not be considered.

2. Submissions for this year’s sessions must take care to closely follow the formatting requirements:

Each panel submission needs a brief rationale for the panel (not to exceed 250 words). Each paper for the panels needs a brief abstract (not to exceed 125 words); appropriate JEL Classification Numbers; names, affiliations and email addresses of the panel's organizer, panel chair, and paper authors. Panels with 4 papers would typically not include discussants; panels with 3 papers would typically include discussants (either other panel members or others). Please provide discussant names for all papers in 3 paper panels (and please confirm the participation of the discussants in advance). For each paper submitted, indicate the name of at least one author who is a current affiliate or member of ACES for 2024. If selected, ACES will contact you to request additional information required for program submission.

3. The deadline for submissions is May 15, 2025. Submissions should be sent to acespanels@gmail.com. Authors may expect to hear from ACES regarding the outcome near the mid-June program submission deadline.

You may also refer to the pdf version of this call.

Call for Papers: Asia Economic Community Forum 2025

As in past years, the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES) will organize one or more panels for inclusion in the Asia Economic Community Forum. This year’s Asia Economic Forum will be held virtually and on site in Incheon, Korea on August 22, 2025. We invite authors to submit papers dealing with Asia and its role in the global economy. Papers dealing with the theme of the conference, which is “Asia in the Age of US-China Competition,” are especially welcome, but the selection committee will consider papers on other topics pertaining to Asia as well.

Submissions may take the form of individual extended abstracts or complete papers or of organized panels that combine 3-4 papers around a given topic. In the case of panel proposals, the panel organizer should provide abstracts or complete papers as well as a rationale for the panel topic.

Publication opportunities: Papers presented at the Forum that are successfully evaluated for publication will be published in the journal Asia and the Global Economy and the Forum will cover all publication fees. Asia and the Global Economy is now indexed in SCOPUS.

Paper and panel proposals should be sent to Professor Josef Brada at josef.brada@asu.edu.

The deadline for submissions is July 22, 2025, and papers will be evaluated on a first come – first served basis as they are received. Since sessions and session slots are limited, early submissions ae encouraged as available slots may be filled before the final deadline.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: ACES SUMMER SCHOOL IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, AUGUST 20-22, 2025

ACES is pleased to announce its Call for Applications for its 2025 ACES Summer School in Political Economy, running from August 20 - 22 at the African School of Economics Zanzibar.  This 3-day summer school will expose participants to cutting-edge research in political economy, economic history, and development economics, and offer students a unique opportunity to interact with mentors. Participants will receive feedback on their research ideas in focused mentoring sessions both from faculty and from other students. The school also provides an opportunity to develop networks with other young scholars interested in political economy and related subfields of economics. 

Applications will be accepted through 11:59 pm EST on May 9. Application instructions are available here.

Call for Applications: Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2025-2026 

To encourage research on comparative economics and to recognize the fundamental contributions of Gerard Roland to the field, the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES) has established the Gerard Roland Dissertation Fellowship. The fellowship will be awarded for a one-year period. The selection panel consists of Michael Callen (London School of Economics), Filipe Campante (Johns Hopkins University), Vasiliki Fouka (Stanford University), Sara Lowes (University of California, San Diego) and Noam Yuchtman (University of Oxford). The panel will assess each applicant’s potential to make an important contribution to key questions in comparative economics. The panel also strives to recruit a diverse group of award recipients, including, to the extent possible, individuals from under-represented minority groups and from a variety of academic institutions. 

Fellowship recipients are expected to pursue academic research that is primarily related to: i) development/transition economics; ii) comparative institutions; iii) political economy; and iv) economics of culture. Other topics emphasizing theory, methods or implications of comparative economics are accepted too. Students working in related fields are encouraged to apply.

One fellowship will be awarded for the academic year 2025-2026. The fellowship will provide a stipend of $35,000; $5,000 to support the costs of data acquisition and travel to research meetings; and will cover the fellow’s tuition at their home institution, up to a limit of $14,000 for the academic year. Fellows may choose to reduce their stipend to fund a larger data purchase or other research support. The Association aims to announce winners by May 16, 2025.  Fellows will be expected, to the extent possible, to make data collected for their research publicly available. Fellows are also expected to attend, in person, the ACES Members’ Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, USA, in January 2026.

To be eligible for fellowship support, an applicant must be enrolled as a full-time Ph.D. student at an accredited college or university, and must have advanced to dissertation candidacy status by the start of the fellowship period. The ACES strongly encourages applications from women, minorities, people with disabilities, and veterans.

Applicants should email a short research proposal consisting of no more than three pages of text and one supplemental page of tables or graphs, and a CV, to the Coordinator of Membership Services, Brian Deutsch, at briandeutsch@pitt.edu.  The proposal should specify deliverables, such as expected research papers that will be finished at the end of the fellowship year. In addition, applicants should ask their dissertation supervisor to email a letter of recommendation to the same address. All components of the application must be received by 11:59 pm (EST) on April 15, 2025. Applicants are responsible for verifying that their letter of recommendation has been sent by the deadline. In fairness to all applicants, the submission deadline is strictly enforced. Applications that are not complete, including the letter of recommendation, on April 15, 2025 will not be considered. 

By July 31, 2026, fellows must provide the selection committee with a copy of at least one research paper (for example, a draft of the job market paper) on comparative economics (broadly defined) that was completed during the fellowship period.

Please circulate our Call for Papers pdf widely among your relevant networks.

ACES joins Bluesky

As a way to return to a social media presence, ACES has recently joined Bluesky. Follow us there for the latest news and announcements about ACES events, fellowships, education opportunities, and more. Don't forget to also join our Affiliate network to stay on our mailing lists; paid membership opportunities are available as well.

2024 Montias Prize Winner Announcement

ACES is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Montias Prize, for the best paper in the Journal of Comparative Economics over the past two years: Nicola Fontana, Tommaso Nannicini, and Guido Tabellini for their article "Historical roots of political extremism: The effects of Nazi occupation of Italy."

We study the impact of the Italian Civil War and Nazi occupation of Italy in 1943–45 on postwar political outcomes. The Communist Party, which was more active in the resistance movement, gained votes in areas where the Nazi occupation was both longer and harsher, mainly at the expense of centrist parties. This effect persists until the late 1980s. These results suggest that civil war and widespread political violence reshape political identities in favor of the political groups that emerge as winners. This benefits extremist groups and hurts moderates since the former have a comparative advantage in organizing violent conflict.

The Association for Comparative Economic Studies awards prizes every year for the best papers in each of its two journals. Top papers are those ranked the highest by members of the ACES Executive Committee and leadership each year. The Montias Prize, first awarded in 2004, is named after J. Michael Montias and is given to the best paper published in the Journal of Comparative Economics over the past two years.  

Awardees are presented with a monetary prize and a plaque, and are recognized at the annual meeting each January. For more information about our award history, please review this page.

Statement of ACES Leadership on 2022 ASSA Conference Sessions 

To the ACES Community,

We are writing regarding the structure and selection of the ACES sessions in the upcoming 2022 ASSA meetings. We have decided that for these meetings there will be only invited ACES sessions, rather than the usual mix of invited and submitted sessions. We understand that this will be disappointing to those of you who had hoped to submit a session proposal this year, and we apologise for the lack of up-front communication regarding the selection of the sessions at the upcoming meetings.

The uncertainty of COVID's impact on the 2022 ASSA meetings (whether they will be in-person, and who might be able to attend) led us to take the risk-averse strategy of organising all of the sessions ourselves. This made the process more predictable, and also provides some insurance against logistical and administrative changes that may well come up. Of course, this decision has a cost -- limiting the scope of the sessions -- which is understandably disappointing to some ACES members. We fully acknowledge this, but felt that under the circumstances this was the right decision.

Looking ahead, for the 2023 ASSA meetings, we plan to return to accepting submitted sessions. We are committed to supporting a broad range of scholars and scholarship, and look forward to reading a broad range of submissions from our membership for the 2023 ASSA meetings.

We greatly value the participation of ACES members in our ASSA sessions, both as presenters and in the audience. We anticipate that our many members will enjoy the sessions we have organized this year, and hope to see many members in person in January.

Best wishes,

James Kung, President

Noam Yuchtman, President-elect

ACES announces end to submission fees for its two journals

Effective 2021, ACES has ended the submission fee system for its two journals, Comparative Economic Studies and Journal for Comparative Economic Studies.  From summer 2019 through December 2020, ACES required authors to either pay a submission fee or become an ACES member.  However, starting January 2021, authors are no longer required to join the Association or pay a submission fee to the publishers.  We anticipate this will encourage more engagement and greater participation.  Please contact the ACES Coordinator of Membership Services, Brian Deutsch, with any questions or concerns.

Find us on Facebook

ACES has a new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/comparativeecon/  We will be posting news, announcements, and other items here; feel free to join and follow!