The History of Economics Society is delighted to announce the winner of 
this year's Joseph Dorfman Best Dissertation Prize:

Christina Laskaridis, 'Debt Sustainability: Towards a History of Theory, 
Policy and Measurement' (SOAS, University of London)

The prize committee, consisting of Edward Nik-Khah (chair), Roni Hirsch 
and Antonella Rancan, explained its decision as follows:

"Christina Laskaridis has written a superb dissertation on an urgent 
topic.

Laskaridis’s specific focus is the history of Debt Sustainability 
Analysis (DSA), as developed and put forward by the World Bank and the 
IMF. It examines how and why DSA took root, as well as the political and 
institutional stakes behind different approaches taken. Driving the 
development and acceptance of these approaches was the age-old conflict 
between debtors and creditors. The dissertation examines how the 
practices of economists shaped this conflict, thereby offering a 
compelling contribution to the history of quantification within the 
social sciences and the history of economic practice.

Laskaridis has written a careful and meticulous history of an economics 
done when the stakes are high. Such economics was informed by and 
derived from practical needs; it was forged out of protest, geopolitical 
struggle, political organizing, and efforts at international 
collaboration and compromise. On this point, the work’s conclusion is 
enlightening. It shows that compromise does not necessarily win the day, 
but rather ideas that manage to bypass conflict, seeking the path of 
least resistance when compromise is impossible. When created under such 
conditions, ideas and practices often fail to meet either the needs of 
the parties to the conflict or their stated purpose. Importantly, she 
identifies the legacy of this conflict in a new field, the economics of 
debt, default, and sustainability.

Laskaridis creatively uses the history of economics to address matters 
of vital importance. In exposing the working of power within the 
technocratic discourse of debt servicing, her dissertation maintains a 
strong and clear authorial voice. We congratulate Christina Laskaridis 
in her important and timely accomplishment"

Previous award winners can be found on the HES website at:
https://historyofeconomics.org/awards-and-honors/dorfman-dissertation-prize/

-- 
Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak
Secretary, History of Economics Society
Associate Professor, The American University of Paris