We are pleased to announce that the International Studies of Economics (ISE) 2024 “Best Paper Award” goes to “Macroeconomic consequences of alternative reforms to the health insurance system in the United States” by Zhigang Feng (University of Nebraska), and “Palm as Decentralized Identifiers: Mitigate scrounging of platform economy” by Hanmo Wang (University of Hong Kong),  Shuqi Wang (China Agricultural University), and Dong Zhang (Beijing Machine Learning Technology Co., Ltd.).

In the former paper, Dr. Feng presents a dynamic general equilibrium model designed to examine the macroeconomic effects and welfare implications of alternative reforms to the US health insurance system, while in the latter paper, the authors develop a model that characterizes scrounging behavior in digital platform promotions and provides a theoretical explanation, and introduce Palm as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), offering Proof-of-Human (PoH) to reduce fake identity prevalence.

The selection process was launched in early 2025, marking the journal’s third annual best paper award. The aim of the award is to acknowledge academic excellence of publications of the year in the ISE，attract more high-quality submissions, and promote academic exchanges. The winner will receive a certificate plus a cash prize of 3000 RMB (pre-tax). 

An Evaluation Committee, including the Editor, Executive Editor, Guest Editor, and Co-editors of the ISE, has been established to evaluate the papers, propose a nomination list, and select the winners.