In 1990, the Society established an annual award for the Best Dissertation in the History and Methodology of Economics in memory of Joseph Dorfman. Historian of economics and Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics Society, Joseph Dorfman’s family endowed a permanent fund for this prize.
The winner will receive a stipend of $500 plus travel expenses up to $1,000 to attend the 52nd annual conference of the History of Economics Society (June 2025 in Richmond, Virginia). All dissertations in the history of economics and economic methodology, written in English, completed and defended during the last two years (September 2022 to August 2024), are eligible. The selection committee will consider all nominated dissertations, with self-nominations permitted.
The selection committee is formed this year by Jean-Baptiste Fleury (HDEA, Sorbonne Université), Juan Carlos Acosta (Universidad del Valle), and Marianne Johnson (University of Wisconsin Oshkosh).
Deadline for nominations: December 1, 2024
To nominate a dissertation for the Dorfman Prize, please contact the Chair of the committee: jean-baptiste.
Award Recipients
| YEAR | AUTHOR | TITLE | SUPERVISOR |
| 2024 | Andrés M. Guiot-Isaac | The Emergence of an Economic Technocracy in Colombia, 1948-1974 | Eduardo Posada-Carbó |
| 2023 | Matheus Assaf | Tracing Mathematical Economics: Essays in the History of (Departments of) Economics | Pedro Garcia Duarte (Universidade de São Paulo) |
| 2022 | Christina Laskaridis | Debt Sustainability: Towards a History of Theory, Policy and Measurement | Ourania Dimakou (SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom) |
| 2021 | Agnès Le Tollec | Finding a New Home (Economics): Toward a Science of the Rational Family, 1924-1981 | Philippe Fontaine (École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay) |
| 2020 | Maria Bach | Redefining universal development from and at the margins: Indian economics’ contribution to development discourse, 1870-1905 | Valbona Muzaka (King’s College London) |
| 2019 | Ola Innset | Reinventing Liberalism: Early Neoliberalism in Context | Professor Lucy Riall (European University Institute) |
| 2018 | Adam Leeds | Spectral liberalism : on the subjects of political economy in Moscow | Adriana Petryna (University of Pennsylvania) |
| 2017 | Andrej Svorenčík | The Experimental Turn: A History of Experimental Economics | Harro Maas (University of Utrecht) |
| 2016 | Gerardo Serra | “From Scattered Data to Ideological Education: Economics, Statistics and the State in Ghana, 1948-1966” |
Leigh Gardner and Mary Morgan (London School of Economics)
|
| 2015 | Manuela Fernandez Pinto | “Learning from Ignorance: Agnotology’s Challenge to Philosophy of Science” | Janet A Kourany (University of Notre Dame) |
| 2014 | Catherine Herfeld | “The Many Faces of Rational Choice Theory” | Chrysostomos Mantzavinos (Witten/Herdecke University) |
| 2013 | François Allisson | “Value and Prices in Russian Economic Thought (1890-1920)” | Pascal Bridel (Université de
Lausanne)
|
| 2012 | Alla Semenova | “The origins of money: Evaluating chartalist and metallist theories in the context of ancient Greece and Mesopotamia” | L. Randall Wray (University of Missouri-Kansas City) |
| 2011 | Maria Teresa Tomas Rangil | “The role of self-interest and rationality in the explanation of international and civil wars, 1942-2005” | Philipe Fontaine (Université de Paris X) |
| 2010 | Angus Robinson Burgin | “The Return of Laissez-Faire” | James Kloppenberg (Harvard University) |
| 2009 | None | ||
| 2008 | Huei-Chun Su | “Economic Justice and Liberty: The Social Philosophy in John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism” | John Maloney (University of Exeter) |
| 2007 | Tiago Mata | “Dissent in Economics: Making Radical Political Economics and Post Keynesian Economics, 1960-1980” | Mary Morgan (London School of Economics) |
| 2006 | Cristel Anne de Rouvray | “Economists Writing History: American and French Experience in the mid-20th Century” | Mary Morgan (London School of Economics) |
| 2005 | Kyu Sang Lee | “Rationality, minds and machines in the laboratory: A thematic history of Vernon Smith’s experimental economics” | Phil Mirowski (University of Notre Dame) |
| 2004 | Thomas A. Stapleford | “The Single Most Important Statistic: The Consumer Price Index and American Political Economy, 1880-1955” | Anne Harrington (Harvard University) |
| 2003 | Farid El-Husseini | “Interspatial Price Equilibrium and the Incidence of Tariffs: The Development of the Cournot-Cunynghame-Pigou Approach to the Partial Equilibrium Analysis of International Trade” | Anthony Brewer (University of Bristol) |
| 2002 | Nicola Giocoli | “Equilibrium and Rationality in Economics: From the Years of ‘High Theory’ to the Foundations of Modern Game Theory” | Marco Dardi (University of Florence) |
| 2001 | Bert Mosselmans | “From Classical to Neoclassical: The Economic Thought of William Stanley Jevons (1835 – 1882) and Its Relation to his Ethics, Logic and Aesthetics” Related to HES List Guest Editorial | Dirk Frantzen (Brussels, VUB) |
| 2000 | Matthias Klaes | “The Emergence of Transaction Costs in Economics: A Conceptual History” | Martin Kusch and David Bloor (Edinburgh) |
| 1999 | Timothy Davis | “David Ricardo’s Macroeconomics” HES List Guest Editorial | Samuel Hollander |
| 1998 | Thomas C. Leonard | “The Reason of Rules in the Intellectual Economy: The Economics of Science and the Science of Economics” abstract | Arjo Klamer (George Washington) |
| 1997 | Daniele Besomi | “The Making of Harrod’s Dynamics” | John Presley (Loughborough) |
| 1996 | Jeff Lipkes | “Politics, Religion, and the Fate of Classical Political Economy: John Stuart Mill and His Followers, 1860-1875” | Harold James (Princeton) |
| 1995 | Esther-Mirjam Sent | “Resisting Sargent” | Kenneth Arrow (Stanford) |
| 1994 | Emeil F. Wubben | “Markets, Uncertainty, and Decision Making: A History of the Introduction of Uncertainty into Economics” | J.H.P. Paelink (Erasmus) |
| 993 | John Vint | “The Wages Fund Doctrine: A Lakatosian Analysis” | Vivienne Brown (Open) |
| 1992 | Ross B. Emmett | “‘The Economist as Philosopher’: Frank H. Knight and American Social Science During the Twenties and Thirties” | A.M.C. Waterman (Manitoba) |
| 1991 | Sandra Peart | “The Applied Economics of William Stanley Jevons, Including Some Comparisons with John Stuart Mill” | Samuel Hollander (Toronto) |
| 1990 | W. D. Sockwell | “Contributions of Henry Brougham and William Ellis to Classical Political Economy” | William O. Thweatt (Vanderbilt) |