2 april 2025, Paris – Julia Cagé, Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Sciences Po, has been named co-recipient of the 2025 Yrjö Jahnsson Prize.
This European prize, awarded every two years by the European Economic Association (EEA) and the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, recognises economists under the age of 45 for their outstanding contributions to economic research in Europe. She is the first French economist to receive this distinction in 12 years.
"I extend my warmest congratulations to Julia Cagé for this prize, which recognizes the excellence of her research. At Sciences Po, we are proud to see a scholar whose work sheds light on the major democratic challenges of our time, particularly issues related to media independence and political transparency, receive such recognition. This award once again highlights the vitality of our academic research and its ability to inform public debate," Luis Vassy, President of Sciences Po.
Julia Cagé shares the prize with economist David Yanagizawa-Drott (University of Zurich). The selection committee praised their joint work in political economy and media studies, particularly their historical analyses of France, the United States, and Africa. The jury emphasised “the crucial importance of media independence for a healthy democracy” and the relevance of their research on the risks of controlled media systems.
Julia Cagé joined Sciences Po in 2014 after earning her PhD in Economics from Harvard University. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and, since 2018, has served as co-director of the “Democracy Evaluation” research group at Sciences Po’s Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP). Her research focuses on media economics, political participation, and social inequalities. In 2023, she was also awarded the Best Young Economist Prize by Le Monde and the Cercle des économistes.
Her recent projects explore issues related to the circulation of information in the digital age, disinformation, and the financing of electoral campaigns. In 2021, she received a prestigious ERC Starting Grant for her PARTICIPATE project, and has since secured several major grants, including from Project Liberty.
This is the first time that an economist from Sciences Po’s Department of Economics has received this award. Sciences Po thus becomes the third French university to count a Yrjö Jahnsson Prize laureate among its faculty, alongside the Toulouse School of Economics and the Paris School of Economics.