The Department of Economics Announces the 2025-26 Tobin Scholars
The Department of Economics is proud to announce the 2025-26 recipients of the Tobin Scholar Prize for their outstanding performance in the Department of Economics core courses. The three seniors are Eleri Phillips, Johanna Dammann, and Mike Zhang.
The prize honors James Tobin, a prominent member of the Department of Economics at Yale from 1950 to 2002, and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1981. Alumni Stephen Freidheim and David Swensen (Yale’s former Chief Investment Officer) created the Tobin Scholars Prize in 2012 to honor Professor Tobin and his scholarship.
In recognition of their accomplishments, the majors receive a cash prize and are presented the Tobin Scholars Mory’s Cup. For more history on the prize, and an interview with Stephen Freidheim and David Swensen, see this article.
The Department is excited to present this year’s award to Eleri, Johanna, and Mike, and highlight their achievements below.
Eleri Phillips
What drew you to major in economics?
I chose to major in economics because I wanted to develop a toolkit to analyze difficult social problems that I care about --- inequality, climate change, and housing access, to name a few. I'm compelled by Esther Duflo's analogy that economists should be like plumbers: taking a pragmatic approach to design systems that do a good job of serving the people that they are meant to serve, and working to fix them when they don't.
What’s been your favorite class so far?
My favorite class has been ECON 339 / MGT 489: Advanced Competition Economics and Policy with Fiona Scott Morton. This class was my introduction to antitrust economics and industrial organization, which I find to be fascinating and important. I enjoyed learning about ongoing issues in antitrust enforcement, such as the Facebook, Google, and RealPage cases. Also, Professor Scott Morton is an amazing professor who teaches with clarity and passion.
What's the topic of your senior essay?
In the fall, I wrote a one-semester senior essay on electric utility mergers.
What activities have you been involved with at Yale?
I graduated in December, but one of my favorite activities at Yale was teaching math in a New Haven middle school through Yale Mathcounts Outreach. I miss it! I was also a Writing Partner at the Poorvu Center, FOOT leader, a member of the rock climbing community, and a frequent user of the Grace Hopper pottery studio.
Johanna Dammann
What drew you to major in economics?
I was drawn to how economics provides the tools to analyze the decisions that agents make and explains how those decisions give rise to observed phenomena. Economics also allows for quantitative, empirical analysis of many policy relevant or socially relevant questions.
What’s been your favorite class so far?
Econ 2125 (Microeconomic Theory) was the first economics class I took that really showed me how economics and math can be used to build models of seemingly complex behavior. This class introduced me to the kinds of assumptions that are made about individuals in economic models, and how to use those assumptions to explain the behavior of different agents in settings like insurance markets or auctions.
What's the topic of your senior essay?
I'm writing an econometrics essay examining the estimation of treatment effects in randomized controlled trials where participants only partially comply with their assigned treatment.
What activities have you been involved with at Yale?
I am currently a peer mentor for the economics department and a ULA for Introductory Macroeconomics. I have previously been a ULA for several math and CS courses, and have also loved cooking at the TD buttery!
Mike Zhang
What drew you to major in economics?
I was drawn to economics because a small set of disciplined assumptions can generate powerful explanations of real-world phenomena. Studying economics at Yale also helped me hone my skill set, particularly in programming and writing.
What’s been your favorite class so far?
I especially enjoyed Yale’s econometrics sequence, including Econ 1117 and Econ 5551. These courses introduced me to causal inference, which I found both beautiful and useful for empirical case studies. In addition, Professor Humphries and Professor Vytlacil are both great teachers!
What's the topic of your senior essay?
My senior essay studies the U.S. yield curve, focusing on how financial frictions affect interest rates across maturities in the world’s largest bond market.
What activities have you been involved with at Yale?
I have been involved with the Yale International Relations Association, the Salus Populi Foundation, and the Yale Foreign Policy Initiative. I have also worked as a research assistant in the Economics Department and as an undergraduate learning assistant in machine learning.