Economics Professor Bradley Hansen was awarded a prize from the Stanton Foundation, which recently launched a weekly contest to identify and reward the best new applied history article or op-ed that illuminates the current coronavirus crisis. An advisory panel from the Applied History Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center assisted in the screening process.

Co-authored with American University Economics Professor Mary Eschelbach Hansen, the article Hansen submitted, “Making it easier to declare bankruptcy could avert economic catastrophe,” ran in The Washington Post on April 24, 2020. On its website, the Stanton Foundation wrote: “The Selection Committee was particularly impressed with the detailed legal history of bankruptcy in the Great Depression that makes a clear, compelling argument for a concrete policy prescription.” Read the article.