"It came as a total surprise," said Budish, who learned he had won the scholarship last week. Budish was in the process of applying to economics graduate schools, so he was happy to hear about winning the scholarship. "I feel great. I was so lucky to have such a great thesis advisor and such great professors and friends. I feel intensely indebted to Amherst," he said.
According to Fellowships Coordinator Denise Gagnon, Budish applied for the scholarship when he was a senior at the College, but did not receive it then. Following graduation, he joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker in the mergers and acquisitions department.
"It's very exciting," Gagnon said. "It's a very prestigious award, right up there with the Rhodes Scholarship."
"Eric was a strong candidate when he applied as a senior, but I think his work at Goldman Sachs and his desire to further his understanding of behavioral economics at Oxford appealed to the Marshall committee," Gagnon said.
At Goldman Sachs, Eric has worked various corporate auctions and has enjoyed the opportunity to test how well academic theories of auctions apply to real-life corporate auctions.
While at Amherst, Budish won the economics department's prize for being the junior with the most potential in economics. He also won the Bernstein Prize for the best economics thesis, and the James R. Nelson Memorial Award for economics. Budish majored in economics and philosophy and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Assistant Professor of Economics Lisa Takeyama was Budish's thesis advisor. Budish wrote his thesis on internet auctions.
"I had the pleasure of being Eric's honors thesis advisor," said Takeyama. "I can remember our first meeting-he plopped himself down on a chair in my office and said he wanted to 'do something with auctions.' After several sessions of brainstorming together, he finally narrowed his topic down to an examination of 'buy prices' in online auctions."
Budish's thesis received high distinction in the economics department. He specifically looked into a new type of auction used by Yahoo! called a buy-price auction, in which a price cap is set and then items are sold to the first person agreeing to the set price.
"It seemed like a weird way to sell something, so I looked into under what circumstances it might be rational for sellers to use buy prices," said Budish.
"Working with Eric was mutually rewarding," said Takeyama. "I think I learned as much from him as he learned from me. It was also delightfully exhausting working with Eric-the more I pushed him, the more he pushed me. Since his graduation from Amherst, we have continued our discussions about buy prices and auctions more generally. We are presently working on generalizing some of the work in his thesis."
According to the Marshall Scholarship website, the scholarships "finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the United Kingdom." Recipients of scholarships can attend any British university for two years and are unrestricted in their subject matter of study as long as it leads to the receipt of a degree.
Eligibility requirements include a 3.7 grade point average and a degree from a four-year college or university in the United States. Up to 40 scholarships are awarded each year. The scholarships cover university fees and living and traveling expenses, among other things.
Budish said that he plans to pursue a Master of Philosophy in economics at Oxford, which is similar to a master's degree. While at Oxford, Budish said he will complete a two-year program, during which he will further study auctions and also behavioral economics.
"I was absolutely delighted to hear that Eric had won the Marshall Scholarship," said Takeyama. "I am sure he will take advantage of the opportunity to work closely with Paul Klemperer, a leading auction theorist at Oxford. I have no doubt that Paul Klemperer will find working with Eric as mutually rewarding as I have."
"I am incredibly excited to go Oxford. I feel honored and pretty lucky," Budish said.
"I know Eric will go far in whatever he chooses to do," Takeyama said.