CARD Director John Crespi announced Dr. Liyuan Ma as the recipient of the seventh annual CARD Award for Best PhD Dissertation in Agricultural, Environmental, and Energy Economics Policy. Ma was awarded a $500 prize, and will have her name added to the Dissertation Award winners plaque in the CARD suite in Heady Hall.

Ma's dissertation is comprised of four chapters focusing on labor economics. The first essay provides theory and evidence about how the traditional marriage expenditure paid by a bride’s parents and groom’s parents affects marriage matches in China. Chapter 2 estimates the relative importance of family background, ability, school quality, and the local labor market on children’s educational attainment and early-career earnings. Chapter 3 studies firm churning, which is the simultaneous entry and exit of firms into a local market. Chapter 4 examines how observed work discrimination and demographic attributes such as gender, education, and marital status relate to employee perceptions of discrimination.

Ma has co-authored three articles that have appeard in CARD's Agricultural Policy Reivew: "What Affects Firm Location and Firm Employment at State Borders?," "Does Rural Broadband Expansion Encourage Firm Entry?," and "Minimum Wages and Rural and Urban Firm Entry and Exit."