Associate Professor of Economics Syon Bhanot recently received the Best Paper Award from the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration (JBPA) for his exemplary behavioral change study, "Politicians as Persuaders: A Field Experiment on Messenger Effects and Social Program Uptake." The paper was selected after a nomination process and a popular vote by the JBPA editorial board. 

 "[This project] proves that close collaborations between academics and city governments are possible," says Bhanot, who worked with the city of Philadelphia under former Mayor Jim Kenney to build a behavioral science team.

In addition to recognizing his collaborators, Anjali Chainani and Dan Hopkins, Bhanot also thanked former student researchers : Aamia Malik '18, Charles Williamson '19, Kat Capossela '21, Sean Cheng '24, Kevin Hudson '21, Sydney Levy '23, Naomi Horn '22, Eleanor Miller '22, Cedric Christensen '24, and Jason Wang '24.