Professor Gans (pictured) was announced in late September 2007 as the inaugural recipient of the annual Young Economists Award.

The award goes to "honour that Australian economist under the age of forty who is deemed to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge".

Professor Gans is Professor of Management (Information Economics) at Melbourne Business School , founder and director of economic consultancy CoRE Research, and maintains one of Australia’s most prominent economics Web logs, economics.com.au. His most recent book, Finishing the Job, looked at the need for further reforms in health, housing, education and transport.

In December 2006 CEDA published Professor Gans' paper on Australia's broadband infrastructure, The Local Broadband Imperative. The paper argued that Australia will get the best possible broadband service by creating a system that delivers a wide variety of local solutions. The paper became the focus of an ongoing national debate on the economic impact of high-speed broadband.

Professor Gans was also a member of CEDA's July 2007 panel examining the big issues that Australian public policy should address the next ten years.