In June 2025, The SCOR-PSE Chair, created in 2017 by the SCOR Foundation for Science and the Paris School of Economics (PSE), presented its 2024 Junior Research Prize to Joao Guerreiro (UCLA), Jonathon Hazell (LSE), Chen Lian (UC Berkeley), and Christina Patterson (UChicago). The award ceremony took place online on June 10, following which the authors presented their winning paper: "Why do Workers Dislike Inflation? Wage Erosion and Conflict Costs.” The judging panel was headed by the Chair’s Scientific Director Gilles Saint-Paul, who is a Professor at ENS and PSE.

Pierre-André Chiappori, Chairman of the SCOR Foundation for Science, commented: "This year’s SCOR-PSE Junior Research Prize was awarded to Joao Guerreiro (UCLA), Jonathon Hazell (LSE), Chen Lian (UC Berkeley), and Christina Patterson (UChicago), for their work entitled “Why do Workers Dislike Inflation? Wage Erosion and Conflict Costs,” which shows that “conflict costs” play a significant role: workers must incur these costs to have their nominal wages keep up with inflation, as employers do not automatically provide wage increases when inflation is high. Capturing the conflict cost in a menu-cost style model applied to wage setting, the paper shows both analytically and quantitatively that conflict costs change how inflation shocks impact workers’ welfare. This work is particularly insightful and timely".

Biographies

Joao Guerreiro
Joao Guerreiro is a macroeconomist. His research focuses on business cycles, fiscal policy, inequality, and imperfect expectations. He also seeks to understand the consequences of demographic and technological change for inequality and the optimal public policy response. He is an Assistant Professor of Economics at UCLA. He received his PhD in Economics from Northwestern University in June 2023.

Jonathon Hazell
Jonathon Hazell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the London School of Economics, affiliated with the Centre for Macroeconomics, the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded the Adam Smith Prize, and his PhD in economics from MIT.

Chen Lian
Chen Lian is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley. He works on macroeconomics, behavioral economics, and finance. He received his PhD in economics from MIT

Christina Patterson
Christina Patterson studies macroeconomics and labor economics, with a focus on how inequality across workers and firms can affect the economy’s response to shocks.. Her research has appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, AEJ: Macroeconomics , and European Economic Review. She holds a PhD in economics from MIT and a BA in mathematics and economics from Columbia University.

About the SCOR-PSE Chair

Under the scientific leadership of Gilles Saint-Paul (PSE, ENS) and the executive leadership of Axelle Ferrière (PSE, CNRS), the SCOR-PSE Chair, created in June 2017, aims to promote the development and dissemination of research into macroeconomic risk, in particular rare events and uncertainties that remain difficult to model. It publishes articles, organizes an annual conference and gives out the Junior Research Prize each year.