About our prizes and awards

Allyn Young (1876-1929) taught economics at Harvard University before moving to the London School of Economics and Political Science in the late 1920s. Young’s 1928 essay on increasing returns and economic growth continues to inspire modern conversations about endogenous growth theory.

The Gonner Prize is awarded for outstanding performance in the final year of the BSc Economics programme

Sir Edward Carter Kersey Gonner (1862-1922) is noted for his influence on the teaching of economics in higher education during the late 19^th century and beyond.

In 1891, Gonner was appointed as Brunner chair of economic science in Liverpool. As an educator and economist, his areas of expertise included history, political economy and statistics. Throughout the First World War, Gonner worked in the Ministry of Food as an economic adviser and later, as director of statistics. Gonner was appointed CBE in 1918 and KBE in 1921 for his wartime service.

(Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

The J R (Bob) Gould Prize is awarded for the best performance by a Department of Economics student in Economics (EC1P1).

In 1953, Joseph Robert (Bob) Gould (1927-1999) applied to study BSc Economics at the School. He chose Accounting as his Special Subject and completed his first year successfully. Due to ill health, Gould was forced to take time out from his studies but returned to the School in 1955, graduating in 1957 with first-class honours. For his outstanding academic performance, Gould was awarded the Allyn Young Prize.

His potential was evident and Gould was immediately appointed to the post of Teaching Assistant in October 1957. He was appointed to Assistant Lecturer a year later and promoted to Lecturer in 1960. During his time at LSE, Gould also worked as Senior Lecturer and Reader.

After taking early retirement in 1990, Gould continued to work in the Department of Economics as a Visiting Teacher in Economics, allocating the teaching and examining quotas to members of the Department.

Bob Gould was primarily an economist who worked in the area of microeconomics, but with wider interests in business administration and accounting. As a result, he not only published in economic journals, such as Economica, the Economic Journal and the Journal of Political Economy, but also in Accountancy, the Journal of Law and Economics, the Modern Law Review and the Yale Law Journal.

(With special thanks to Jim Thomas (Emeritus Reader in Economics and Research Associate STICERD, LSE) and Sue Donnelly, School archivist.)

The Premchand Prize is awarded for outstanding performance in Monetary Economics (EC321).

This prize was donated by the Premchand family towards the end of the 1930s. Brothers Kishore Maneklal Premchand and Ramesh Maneklal Premchand both studied at the School during this period.

Their father, Sir Kikabhai Premchand (1883-1953) was an Indian financier and co-founder of the firm, Premchand Roychand & Sons. In 1930, Sir Premchand was knighted for his work on the Round Table Conference and the formation of India’s Constitution.

The Rishi Madlani Award  is awarded for outstanding performance in macroeconomics in each of the second year courses Macroeconomics II (EC2B1 and EC2B3). Each winner receives £100. 

The Economics Examiners Prize is awarded for outstanding merit in Economics papers in the first and second year of the BSc Economics programme.

The winner of the Sir John Hicks Prize for outstanding exam performance in the MSc Economics and MSc Economics Two Year Programme is awarded £300. 

Sir John Hicks taught at LSE from 1926 to 1935. His most well-known work Value and Capital was written while he was at LSE and published in 1939. In 1972, Hicks received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly) for his pioneering contribution to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory.

John Hicks’ IS-LM model (1937) was deeply anchored in theories of the behaviour of consumers and of entrepreneurs and introduced a better way to study the consequences of changes in externally given variables. He donated the Nobel Prize to the School's Library Appeal in 1973.

The Ely Devons Prize for outstanding Overall Performance with a mark of Distinction in all four subjects in the MSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics Programme. The winner receives £800, the prize can be split between multiple winners in which case the prize pool is split.

In 1959, Ely Devons (1913-1967) was appointed to the chair of commerce at the London School of Economics. In 1965, his title changed to chair of economics. Devons was largely responsible for the emerging MSc degrees in economics and econometrics at the time, helping to raise funds for graduate fellowships. Throughout his time at the School, Devons acted as a member of the Local Government Commission for England and a consultant to the British and foreign governments.

Before joining the School, Devons was chair of applied economics at the University of Manchester, where he graduated with first-class honours in the school of economics, politics and modern history. After completing his masters, Devons spent a considerable proportion of his career in the public sector as a statistician. He worked as an economic assistant to the Joint Committee of Cotton Trades Organization and a statistician for the Central Economic Information Service, which later developed into the economic section of the war cabinet secretariat and the Central Statistical Office.

(Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

The Ely Devons prize is sponsored by QuantCo.

The Denis Sargan Prize for Exceptional Performance in two or more Core Courses and excellent performance overall in the MSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics Programme. The winner receives £400, the prize can be split between multiple winners in which case the prize pool is split.

Denis Sargan (1924-1996) was a British economist renowned for his pioneering contributions to econometrics. Born in London, he earned a PhD from the London School of Economics and later became a professor at the same institution. Sargan's work significantly advanced the field of econometrics by addressing critical issues in statistical modelling and estimation methods.

He was the originator of the so called “LSE approach to econometrics” and the associated “general-to-specific modelling” methodology. He made path-breaking contributions to linear and nonlinear instrumental variables estimation. His approaches have become fundamental tools in empirical economics. Sargan's innovative insights laid the groundwork for rigorous empirical analysis, bridging the gap between economic theory and real-world data. His dedication to methodological precision and statistical rigor has left an indelible mark on the discipline, influencing generations of economists and researchers. Through his numerous publications and academic leadership, Sargan's legacy continues to shape modern econometric practices and enrich our understanding of economic phenomena.

(Source: The British Academy)

The Denis Sargan prize is sponsored by QuantCo.

The winner of the Sir John Hicks Prize for outstanding performance in the MRes Economics examinations is awarded £500. 

The winner of the Sir John Hicks Prize for an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis is awarded £1000.