Hicks‑Tinbergen 2026 Award Granted to Prof. David de la Croix
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The European Economic Association has announced the winner of the 2026 Hicks‑Tinbergen Award: the paper “The Academic Market and the Rise of Universities in Medieval and Early Modern Europe”. The study is co‑authored by David de la Croix (UCLouvain, LIDAM, IRES), Frédéric Docquier (LISER), Alice Fabre (AMSE), and Robert Stelter (University of Applied Administrative Sciences, Rostock, and Research Fellow at the University of Basel ). Congratulations to the entire team for this remarkable achievement!
A Study Highlighting Europe’s Pioneering Role in Knowledge Creation
The award committee underlined the innovative nature of the research, calling it a major contribution to the understanding of the development of European universities from the Middle Ages onward.
The paper forms part of a broader European Research Council project dedicated to assembling the Repertorium Eruditorum Totius Europae, an extensive biographical database of European scholars. This database alone represents a significant advance for historical research.
Beyond introducing this unique dataset, the authors reveal new and often unexpected insights on the academic market in Europe between the years 1000 and 1800. Their work shows that, across the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, the European academic system was both integrated and meritocratic.
A shared scholarly language, Latin, allowed leading academics to move freely and join the most prestigious universities across Europe. Moreover, Europe’s political fragmentation and the balance between church and state prevented rulers from fully controlling academic institutions.
This environment fostered mobility, excellence, and competition, enabling the best minds to cluster in the best institutions. The emergence and consolidation of European universities, the paper argues, laid the groundwork for sustained knowledge creation and ultimately contributed to the economic breakthroughs of the Industrial Revolution.
About the Hicks‑Tinbergen Award
Established in 1991, the Hicks‑Tinbergen Award is presented every two years (in even‑numbered years) to the author(s) of an exceptional article published in the Journal of the European Economic Association during the preceding two‑year period.
Named in honour of Sir John Hicks and Jan Tinbergen, the award reflects the Association’s commitment to promoting both theoretical and empirical excellence in economic research.