On May 12, 2026, the SCOR-PSE Chair, created in 2017 by the SCOR Foundation for Science and the Paris School of Economics (PSE), presented its 2025 Junior Research Prize to David Yang (Harvard University) and Ernest Liu (Princeton University). The award ceremony took place online, following which the authors presented their winning paper: "International Power.” 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 David Yang (Harvard University) and Ernest Liu (Princeton University), for their paper titled “International Power,” which looks at the structure of trade as a source of national power. In the current global environment, this work is particularly insightful and timely.”.

Biographies

Ernest Liu
Ernest Liu is an associate professor in Princeton’s Department of Economics. His research interests are in finance, growth, and macro-development. Ernest Liu’s research is centered around the implications of weak financial institutions for economic growth, allocation of resources, and economic development. One strand of his work uses production network theory to understand industrial policies, specifically the strong government support for upstream industries that are widely adopted in developing economies. Another strand of work shows how low, long-term interest rates affect market concentration and productivity growth; how banks with market power respond to interest rate ceilings in small business lending; and, how financial market imperfections not only distort economic allocations via underinvestment but may greatly amplify effects due to interactions across economic sectors or because the relationships between borrowers and lenders create under-development traps. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from MIT and joined Princeton’s faculty in 2019.

David Yang
David Y. Yang is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University and Director of the Center for History and Economics at Harvard. David is a Faculty Research Fellow at NBER, a Global Scholar at CIFAR, and a fellow at BREAD. David’s research focuses on political economy. In particular, David studies the forces of stability and forces of changes in authoritarian regimes, drawing lessons from historical and contemporary China. David received a B.A. in Statistics and B.S. in Business Administration from University of California at Berkeley, and PhD in Economics from Stanford.

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.

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