Michael Stepner is this year's winner of the prestigious Polanyi Prize for his contributions to economic science.

Through his research program, Stepner will develop four major research projects exploring the root causes of economic and health disparities during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first project includes developing databases that help identify how income losses, public health policies and new government income support programs shaped mortality and inequities during the pandemic.

The second project will focus on quantifying the long-term evolution of health inequality across high-income countries, using detailed data to uncover which income groups are driving di?erences in life expectancy across countries and identify the economic, medical and behavioural factors associated with those di?erences.

Stepner’s third project will examine how the effects of unemployment insurance on consumption and employment vary across groups accessing it, to help inform policies that address the unique needs of their recipients.

His last project will explore the long-term effects of an undergraduate education on disability, longevity and earnings — using the elimination of the Social Security Student Benefit Program in the United States in 1982, which provided ?nancial assistance to more than one in 10 undergraduate students in the country.

Read the full article on the UofT news site and more information about the Polanyi Prize and the winners can be found on the Government of Ontario site.