Currie Wins Carolyn Shaw Bell Award

Dec 08 2015
By Susan B. Higgins
Source Woodrow Wilson School

Janet M. Currie, Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and the director of the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, has been selected to receive the 2015 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award by the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP).

Named after the first Chair of CSWEP, the Bell Award – which was created in 1998 as part of the 25th Anniversary celebration of the founding of the committee – is given annually to a woman who has furthered the status of women in the economics profession.

Currie was selected for her scholarship, teaching and advising, mentoring and her service to the profession. She is described as an "innovative and prolific scholar whose work spans labor, public and health economies." She has made significant contributions to the impact of early childhood intervention programs, including health insurance expansions, public housing provision and nutrition programs.

The award will be presented to Currie on Jan. 3 in San Francisco.

"What makes this award especially meaningful is to have been nominated by students and faculty members that I have mentored over the years,” said Currie, who also is chair of the Department of Economics. “I am very touched to be honored in this way."

Currie earned her Ph.D. in Economics at Princeton in 1988 and later joined the faculty in 2011. Her research interests focus on the health and well-being of children, including early intervention programs, expansions of public health insurance, public housing, and food and nutrition programs. Currently, she is researching socioeconomic differences in child health, environmental threats to children’s health, and the long-term effects of poor health in early childhood. Currie is senior editor of a joint Princeton-Brookings journal, The Future of Children.

Previous winners of the Bell Award include Hilary W. Hoynes of the University of California, Berkeley, and Alice Rivlin, formerly of the U.S. Federal Reserve. A full list of award winners is available on the CSWEP website.