The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has awarded two Cornell doctoral students who are studying entrepreneurship 2008 Kauffman Dissertation Fellowships of $20,000 each. The fellowships are being presented at the American Economic Association's annual meeting in New Orleans, Jan. 4.

In total, the foundation will award 16 such fellowships. The Cornell recipients are Kelly Patterson, whose dissertation explores the relative importance of social information used by commercial credit agents to evaluate the reliability of new business owners, comparing credit rating trends to actual failure, insolvency and bankruptcy rates; and Sarah Thébaud, whose dissertation uses cross-national survey data and experimental studies to evaluate a multilevel theory of gender inequality in the business start-up process.

"An increasing number of doctoral students are choosing a dissertation topic related to entrepreneurship," said Robert J. Strom, director of Entrepreneurship Research and Policy at the foundation. "The purpose of [this program] is to recognize excellence among a select group of the nation's future entrepreneurship scholars."

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City is a private, nonpartisan foundation that works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in America and improve the education of children and youth.