Paying it Forward with Mixtape Fellows

Introducing Valentina Melentyeva and Alessandra Moresi

This substack introduces you to a new thing I’m doing called Mixtape Fellows, and then introduce to the inaugural Fellows: two PhD students, Valentina Melentyeva and Alessandra Moresi, at the Universities of Cologne and Turin, respectively.

Pay It Forward was a Horrible Movie, but Al Roth is Awesome

I saw the movie Pay it Forward in the theater in 2000. It had great promise because it was Helen Hunt’s first film since winning Best Actress, plus Haley Joel Osment was coming off Sixth Sense. But it soon became clear that they’d put together a bunch of big names looking to cash a big paycheck. It was horrible. Sappy. I had such a bad reaction to the movie that anytime thereafter I ever heard the phrase “pay it forward”, I would cringe. When my daughter told me to pay for the person’s drinks in the car behind us at Starbucks and say to the barista that I was “paying it forward”, I happily did so, but I said the phrase itself reluctantly.

But then one day someone said it to me and it melted all that negativity away. Al Roth, the Nobel Laureate, nominated me for NBER and I was deeply appreciative but also uncomfortable as I wanted to pay him back somehow. But Al said,

“Scott, intergenerational favors aren’t meant to be paid back. They’re meant to be paid forward.”

And with that, my distaste for that phrase drained from my heart like a kitchen sink full of dirty water which then was replaced with clean sparkling water.

But over time, the phrase Al had said had became more a mantra and way of life. It’s become about my life but also my career, and now it has fused with my spirituality.

So, Als comment affected me so much that I decided I would pay it forward over and over and not stop. I would give myself the permission to interpret what it meant to me in as personal a way as I wanted. And one of those ways is what I call my “Mixtape Stuff” — the book, the substacks, the podcast, the workshops. And now it is another new thing: Mixtape Fellows.

Mixtape Fellows

Mixtape Fellows will be an annual $1000 USD cash prize given to two young people, either students or junior faculty, anywhere in the world who I’ve met over workshops or through correspondence. It’s people who’ve made an impression on me with their energy, sincerity and earnest desire to do good work.

The prize is meant to convey to them that I believe in them and am betting on them. I am in their corner in whatever way they need. The hope is that this small cash prize can then in some way improve the project they’re working on whatever way they deem fit — to have the push to go get one more crucial piece of data, improve the paper, do the work well. It’s up to them. People with quasi concave preferences know best how to handle lump sum transfers; no need to subsidize something.

So, please let me introduce the first two Mixtape Fellows: Valentina Melentyeva, a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Cologne and a member of the ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy Cluster of Excellence (left) and Alessandra Moresi, a 4th year PhD Student in Economics at the University of Turin and Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy (right).

Valentina Melentyeva’s (left picture) job market paper is also very exciting and I think a lot of people will find it interesting too. It centers around the so-called “motherhood penalty”, a popular topic in labor and the family.

Alessandra Moresi’s (right picture) project is absolutely amazing, and I can’t wait to when it’s ready to circulate. She is studying the interplay between civil unrest, political representation, identity, gender, and social media.

Conclusion

Thank you again everyone for supporting Mixtape Sessions, the book, the substack, and whatever else. I’m paying it forward as best I know how whenever I can. I am trying to find ways to create valuable investments in people and projects. Betting on these two rising scholars was easy — like taking money from a baby. So I’m really excited to introduce you to them and to see where they go!