Hillsdale College Senior Eric LaRose Earns American Enterprise Institute 2016-17 Young Scholars Award

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Sep 29, 2016

HILLSDALE, Mich. – Hillsdale College announced today that senior Eric LaRose has been named a 2016-2017 Young Scholars Award winner by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). This is the second consecutive year a Hillsdale College senior has received this award.

“I’m very excited and honored to have received this award,” said LaRose. “To be the second consecutive AEI Young Scholar from Hillsdale speaks to the amazing education and supportive faculty members here. I look forward to beginning this project and sharing my research next year.”

The Young Scholars Award includes a $5,000 scholarship and an opportunity for LaRose to defend his honors thesis at AEI in spring 2017 and blog at AEI’s Values & Capitalism project.

LaRose’s thesis, Explaining Urban Abandonment through Factors Other than Population Loss, looks to answer the question: Can free market policies combat urban blight and bring about a revival of American cities? The project will examine industrial and population decline in Detroit, Michigan, by comparing it to similar declines in Cleveland, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; Gary, Indiana; and Youngstown, Ohio. His research will also look at cities that have counteracted urban blight to see if those policies could be implemented in other cities.

“Eric combines an inquisitive mind with a firm grasp of economics and has chosen an important topic at both the local and national levels,” said Dr. Gary Wolfram, professor of economics at Hillsdale College. “I am sure his research will lead to public policy that will improve living conditions in many of our nation’s cities.”