We are delighted to announce that the second Standard Error Best Paper Prize has been awarded to Ashisk K. Sedai of the University of Texas at Arlington and a distinguished group of coauthors from the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo and the Indian Statistical Institute at Kolkata for their paper:

“Spousal Relationship and Adolescent Psychosocial Health: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial“

The paper was presented by Ashish Sedai at the 2025 Economics of Mental Health Workshop, hosted by CINCH and UVA Batten at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, September 12–13, 2025.

We are very pleased to recognize all the authors—Ashish K. Sedai (University of Texas at Arlington), Debayan Pakrashi (Indian Statistical Institute), Dil Rahut (Asian Development Bank Institute), and Tetsushi Sonobe (Asian Development Bank Institute)—for their outstanding research excellence and significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the field of mental health economics.

This study stands out for its originality, theoretical and methodological rigor, and contextual sensitivity. Grounded in feminist theories of intrahousehold bargaining and gender normativity, the work highlights how spousal cooperation and community norms jointly shape children’s psychosocial health.

The randomized controlled trial, conducted in Kanpur, India, involved over 700 parent–child pairs and tested two treatments: (i) gender-sensitive couples’ counseling and (ii) counseling combined with community-based games and activities that encouraged the couples to practice cooperation in public. Both approaches improved adolescent psychosocial well-being, but the community-based model produced especially durable results. Girls in participating households reported higher self-confidence, improved relationships with parents, and fewer days of school missed—particularly during menstruation. Parents in treated households invested more in their daughters’ education, and mothers experienced improved mental health and reduced anxiety. These results point to pathways through which family dynamics shape adolescent development.

We warmly congratulate the authors for this notable contribution. The prize is sponsored by Standard Error Research Editors, and the 2025 Economics of Mental Health Workshop was generously funded by Arnold Ventures.

About the Standard Error Best Paper Prize

Founded in 2025, the Standard Error Best Paper Prize was established to spotlight excellent early-stage research and bring it to the attention of a broader audience. Winners receive editorial support and consulting to help connect their findings to wider scholarly and policy communities.

The inaugural prize was awarded to Artur Obminski (Paris School of Economics/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) for his job market paper, which examined Polish locals’ responses to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in 2022 using high-resolution Google Maps review data. His innovative approach revealed significant reductions in visits to establishments frequented by migrants, setting the tone for the kind of original and socially relevant research this prize seeks to recognize.