Scholarships 26 Updated - The Progress and Poverty Institute

Scholarships and Fellowships

Progress of Ideas Scholarship

Our organization was founded in 1925 with the mission to promote the ideas of 19th century social reformer, Henry George. The Progress of Ideas scholarship program echoes that original organizational charge in its focus on economic equity and social justice, and its drive to discern and challenge the drivers of inequality in our systems of governance and taxation.

The scholarship supports the cost of attendance for students in fields of study related to the organization’s mission. We are seeking recipients whose lived experiences have engendered in them a commitment to social justice and a drive to make the world a better place for all people.

Long ago, Henry George wrote, “Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting; by complaints and denunciation; by the formation of parties, or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow.” It is with this in mind that we have created our Progress of Ideas Scholarship.

Our 2025 grant cycle has closed. Please join our e-mail list for up-to-date info on PPI and be one of the first to know about our next round of scholarship opportunities! Click here to sign up.

The application period for the 2026-2027 academic year is now closed.

The application closed on Thursday, January 29, 2026 at 3:00 pm Central Time.

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Current POI Scholarship Recipients

Read below to learn more about our latest group of scholars who will be engaged in innovative research across a variety of different fields and disciplines related to our mission to advance Georgist ideas and thought relevant to contemporary issues and social concerns.

The 2026-2027 academic year marks the inauguration of two annual scholarships, the H. William Batt, PhD Memorial Scholarship and the PPI Scholar-in-Residence. These opportunities were granted by two donors, without whose generosity these scholarships would not have been possible.

Alyssa D. Schatz

H. William Batt, PhD Memorial Scholar

Summer Fellow at Standing Rock Sioux Tribe within the Economic Planning and Grants Management Department

Alyssa is working as a Summer Fellow at Standing Rock Sioux Tribe within the Economic Planning and Grants Management department. Here, she is assisting with the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, assisting to set up a regulatory office for a zoning code, and helping the Tribe transition to a new grants management software to help manage budgeting, procurement, finances and grants with greater transparency, accountability and sovereignty.

This work is particularly meaningful as the Hunkpapa Lakota on Wood Mountain Lakota are close relatives to the Hunkpapa Lakota on Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is proud to support the Oceti Sakowin Oyate through this work and the skills she is acquiring at Harvard. Further, this June marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn and since Alyssa is here she is able to proudly represent WMLFN at the commemoration events.

Martin Jacobson

Scholar-in-Residence

Utilizing PPI’s Mason Gaffney Digital Collection to focus on the economic theory of the factors of production

During my period as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Progress & Poverty Institute, my research will focus on a collaborative project with Paul Forrester, on the economic theory of the factors of production. Economic theorists disagree regarding how to understand the factors of production. While classical political economists identified the three factors of land, labor, and capital, neo-classical economists reduced them to two by treating land as a subset of capital. We argue that this was a mistake and develop our own account of the three-factor model through a ‘hylomorphic’ account of capital goods, and by integrating the Austrian analysis of interest as arising from time preference. The revised three-factor model provides a more realistic picture of the production process and tracks important economic patterns like laws of return, elasticity, locationality, and substitutability.

In 2025, PPI entered into a partnership with The Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey to support five Progress of Ideas Scholars. In the 2026-2027, the program was expanded to support seven scholars. PPI hopes to continue to expand this and similar programs.