Three Students Earn Top National Award in Social Science

Three scholars from the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS) were among 20 selected by the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy to receive prestigious research grants in the social sciences in 2025. 

“This year, we received 501 applications,” said Ayse Akincigil, the foundation’s president. “The awards are highly competitive—the 20 scholars represent just 4 percent of applicants. While many proposals addressed significant social and political issues, the foundation’s trustees recognized these selected projects as particularly robust examples of policy research that addresses today’s complex societal challenges.” 

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2025 Horowitz Foundation Winners: Joseph Hnath, Matthew Jacob, and Dorit Talia Stein.

The Harvard recipients include Joseph Hnath, a PhD candidate in health policy, who received the distinguished Irving Louis Horowitz Award for the most outstanding project proposal. This award, distinct from the foundation’s standard grants, provides recipients with an additional $5,000, underscoring its significance within the annual cycle of awards. 

Hnath's project, "Default Health Insurance Choices and Managed Care for High-Need Populations," evaluates Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) for individuals enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. Employing innovative econometric methods (IV-DiD) alongside policy-driven default enrollment changes, Hnath demonstrates that defaults substantially boost enrollment in D-SNPs and consequently reduce the use of skilled nursing facilities. His research provides critical insights for the design of insurance programs targeted at vulnerable populations and assesses the effectiveness of managed care. 

Joining Hnath as Horowitz scholars from Harvard Griffin GSAS are Matthew Jacob, a PhD student in public policy, and Dorit Talia Stein, a 2025 PhD graduate in population health sciences. 

Jacob’s project, "After the Crisis: Foreclosure’s Lasting Impact on American Families," leverages previously untapped administrative data to investigate how the 2008 foreclosure crisis affected families across generations. Through analysis of tax records and quasi-experimental data on foreclosure mitigation efforts, the research sheds light on the enduring economic impacts of housing displacement for both parents and children. 

Stein’s project, "Modeling Health and Financial Risk Protection Impacts of National Health Insurance in Uganda," examines the implications of health insurance coverage in Uganda, where currently only 1 percent of the population is insured, leaving many households vulnerable to catastrophic medical expenses. Using participatory simulation modeling, her research evaluates the potential distributional impacts of a proposed national health insurance program, aiming to inform policy decisions that enhance both health outcomes and financial security for Ugandans. 

Founded in 1997, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy awards 20 grants annually, each valued at $10,000, with additional funding available for proposals addressing specific targeted areas. In addition to the Irving Louis Horowitz Award, the foundation also confers the Trustees’ Award for the most innovative theoretical or methodological proposal. Grants support policy-relevant research across all major areas of the social sciences. Applicants must be doctoral students with dissertation proposals approved by their committees; however, grants are awarded solely on merit without regard to nationality or residency status. 

For more information about the scholars and their projects, visit the Horowitz Foundation website. 

Draft copy for this announcement was generated by GPT 4.0, sourced in part from the Horowitz Foundation press release, and engineered and edited by Paul Massari.