We are stoked to announce February’s winner of the TSP Media Award for Measured Social Science:

“A New Explanation for the Racial Gap,” Kevin Hartnett, Boston Globe’s Brainiac blog.

In her brief summary, TSP author Erin Hoekstra describes the sociological study from Hartnett’s blog which tests the causes of today’s white-black wealth gap. The findings? Around 27% of the wealth gap is caused by middle-income blacks who are offering informal loans to their family members in need rather than investing that money.

As we’ve said before, the choice of each month’s TSP Media Award is neither scientific nor exhaustive. We do work hard to winnow our favorite nominees.  And, while we don’t have the deep pocketbooks to offer enormous trophies or cash prizes, we hope our informal award offers cheer and encouragement for journalists and social scientists to keep up the important (if not always rewarding) work of bringing academic knowledge to the broader public.