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Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Lensor (talk | contribs) at 09:40, 30 October 2007 (Changed a couple of points that was just plain wrong. Retained the general previous wording though (misleading as it is)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Nobel Prize in Economics is officially named The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, as it is not one of the five Nobel Prizes specified by Alfred Nobel in his will. It is awarded each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. The prize is generally considered the most prestigious honor in economics.[1] The award was established in 1968 after a large donation to the Nobel Foundation from Swedish Central Bank on its 300th anniversary, and first awarded in 1969. As with the Nobel Prizes, the Nobel Foundation does not do the actual prize selection. The economics laureates are selected by a Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and they receive their diploma and gold medal from the Swedish monarch at the December 10 ceremony in Stockholm with the laureates in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature. The prize is administered by the Nobel Foundation and the Swedish Central Bank provides the cash award for it.[2]

Award process

The prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "in accordance with the rules governing the award of the Nobel Prizes instituted through his [Alfred Nobel's] will."[2] Every year in September, the Prize Committee, a five member committee elected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, sends around 3000 invitations to professors, scientists, and other qualified nominators requesting proposals for candidates for the following year's prize.[2][3] All proposals and their supporting evidence must be received before February 1.[3] Afterwards, the proposals are reviewed by the Prize Committee and specially appointed experts. Before the end of September, the committee chooses potential laureates. If there is a tie, then the chairman of the committee casts the deciding vote. Next, the potential laureates must be approved by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Members of the Ninth Class (the social sciences division) of the Academy vote in mid-October to determine the next economics laureate.[2][4][5] As with the Nobel Prizes, no more than three people can share the prize for a given year and they must be alive when the prize announcement is made in October. Similarly, information about the nominations is not publicly disclosed for 50 years.[3]

The economics laureates receive their diploma and gold medal from the Monarch of Sweden at the same December 10 ceremony in Stockholm as the Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature. The cash award for the economics laureates is equal to that of the Nobel Prizes, and has been 10 million Swedish kronor (Oct 2007: approximately 1 million Euro) since 2001.[6]

In February 1995, it was decided that the economics prize be essentially defined as a prize in social sciences, opening the economics prize to great contributions in fields like political science, psychology, and sociology.[citation needed] Also, the Economics Prize Committee was changed to require two non-economists to decide the prize each year, whereas previously the prize committee had consisted of five economists.[citation needed]

Controversies and criticisms

Some critics argue that the prestige of the prize derives in part from its association with the Nobel Prizes, an association which has often been a source of controversy. Among the most vocal critics of the economics prize is the Swedish human rights lawyer Peter Nobel, who is a great-grandnephew of Alfred Nobel.[7] Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal and former Swedish minister of finance Kjell-Olof Feldt have also advocated that the prize should be abolished.[8] In the case of at least the former, however, this objection was based on his opinion that the prize awarded to classical liberal economists Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek was undeserved - not that economics itself did not qualify as a science. Friedrich Hayek stated he would "have decidedly advised against it" if he had been asked about the establishment of the prize.[8]

Some critics claim the prize has a bias towards neoclassical economics.[9][10] The laissez-faire Chicago School of Economics has garnered eight Nobel prizes - more than any other university. Assar Lindbeck was the chair of the selection committee from 1980-1994 and was on the committee since its inception in 1969. He has advocated drastic cutbacks in Sweden's welfare state,[11] has criticised Sweden's attempt to have "capitalism with-out capitalists"[12] and favours the introduction of a voucher system in education. He has also worked with Michael Walker, Douglass North, Gary Becker and Friedman in constructing an Economic Freedom Index. Friedman has stated that Joan Robinson was 'blackballed' because of her espousal of Keynesianism.[13] This is claimed to create either a bias or an appearance of bias against candidates with an alternate view, such as heterodox candidates.

Nassim Taleb criticised the prize for promoting economic theories that misundertand risk. He points to the 1990 prize to William Sharpe and Harry Markowitz for theories that, he says, had already been undermined by the stock market crash of 1987, the 1997 prize to Robert Merton and Myron Scholes for their option pricing formula, and the 2003 prize to Robert Engle for his "ARCH" method of prediction of volatility that Taleb claims underperforms volatility forecasts made by ordinary traders.[14]

About the name

Since the official name of the prize is in Swedish, the English name for the prize has varied throughout its history. The Nobel Foundation has translated the name to the following:

Years Official name in English
1969-1970 Prize in Economic Science dedicated to the memory of Alfred Nobel[15][16]
1971 Prize in Economic Science[17]
1972 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel[18]
1973-1977, 1983 Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel[19][20][21]
1978-1982, 1984-1990 Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences[22][23][24][25]
1991 Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel[26]
1992-2005 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel[27][28]
2006-2007 The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel[29][30]

The economics award has been referred to by several different names. During the Nobel Banquet, many laureates have chosen to not name the prize. Those that have, have referred to the prize as:

Year: Laureate Laureate's name for the prize
1969: Jan Tinbergen[31] Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics
1970: Paul A. Samuelson[32] Alfred Nobel Memorial Awards in Economics
1971: Simon Kuznets,[33]
1994: John C. Harsanyi[34] 		Nobel Memorial Prize
1974: Friedrich August von Hayek[35] Nobel Memorial Prize for economic science
1975: Tjalling C. Koopmans[36] award for economics
1976: Milton Friedman,[37]
1981: James Tobin[38],
2006: Edmund S. Phelps[39] 		Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
1979: Theodore W. Schultz,[40]
1995: Robert E. Lucas Jr.,[41] 		Nobel Prize in Economics
1988: Maurice Allais[42] Prix Nobel d'Economie (French for Nobel Prize in Economics)
1981: Lawrence R. Klein[43] Prize in Economic Science

The press and other agencies have also called the prize:

  • "Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics"[44][45]
  • "Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences"[46]

In popular culture

In the television series The West Wing, the fictional US president Josiah Bartlet is a Nobel laureate in economics.

Laureates

The following is a list of all laureates in economics.[47]

Year Name Country Topics
1969 Ragnar Frisch
Jan Tinbergen 		 Norway
 Netherlands 		for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes
1970 Paul Samuelson  United States for the scientific work through which he has developed static and dynamic economic theory and actively contributed to raising the level of analysis in economic science
1971 Simon Kuznets  United States for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development
1972 John Hicks
Kenneth Arrow 		 United Kingdom
 United States 		for their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory
1973 Wassily Leontief  United States for the development of the input-output method and for its application to important economic problems.
1974 Gunnar Myrdal
Friedrich Hayek 		 Sweden
 Austria 		for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena
1975 Leonid Kantorovich
Tjalling Koopmans 		 Soviet Union
 United States 		for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources
1976 Milton Friedman  United States for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilisation policy
1977 Bertil Ohlin
James Meade 		 Sweden
 United Kingdom 		for their pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements
1978 Herbert Simon  United States for his pioneering research into the decision-making process within economic organizations
1979 Theodore Schultz
Arthur Lewis 		 United States
 United Kingdom 		for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries.
1980 Lawrence Klein  United States for the creation of econometric models and the application to the analysis of economic fluctuations and economic policies
1981 James Tobin  United States for his analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices
1982 George Stigler  United States for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation
1983 Gérard Debreu  United States for having incorporated new analytical methods into economic theory and for his rigorous reformulation of the theory of general equilibrium.
1984 Richard Stone  United Kingdom for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts and hence greatly improved the basis for empirical economic analysis
1985 Franco Modigliani  United States for his pioneering analyses of saving and of financial markets
1986 James M. Buchanan  United States for his development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision-making
1987 Robert Solow  United States for his contributions to the theory of economic growth
1988 Maurice Allais  France for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources
1989 Trygve Haavelmo  Norway for his clarification of the probability theory foundations of econometrics and his analyses of simultaneous economic structures
1990 Harry Markowitz
Merton Miller
William Forsyth Sharpe 		 United States for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics
1991 Ronald Coase  United Kingdom for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy
1992 Gary Becker  United States for having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including non-market behaviour
1993 Robert Fogel
Douglass North 		 United States for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change
1994 John Harsanyi
John Forbes Nash
Reinhard Selten 		 United States
 United States
 Germany 		for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games
1995 Robert Lucas, Jr.  United States for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy
1996 James Mirrlees
William Vickrey 		 United Kingdom
 United States 		for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information
1997 Robert C. Merton
Myron Scholes 		 United States for a new method to determine the value of derivatives
1998 Amartya Sen  India for his contributions to welfare economics
1999 Robert Mundell  Canada for his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas
2000 James Heckman  United States for his development of theory and methods for analyzing selective samples
Daniel McFadden  United States for his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice
2001 George Akerlof
Michael Spence
Joseph E. Stiglitz 		 United States for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information.
2002 Daniel Kahneman  United States/ Israel for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty
Vernon L. Smith  United States for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms
2003 Robert F. Engle
Clive Granger 		 United States
 United Kingdom 		for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility or common trends
2004 Finn E. Kydland
Edward C. Prescott 		 Norway
 United States 		for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles
2005 Robert Aumann (ישראל אומן)
Thomas Schelling 		 Israel/ United States
 United States 		for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis
2006 Edmund Phelps  United States for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy
2007 Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin, Roger B. Myerson  United States for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory

References

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  2. ^ a b c d "Statutes for The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel approved by the Crown on the 19th day of December 1968". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  3. ^ a b c "Nomination and Selection of the Laureates in Economics". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  4. ^ "Nominating and awarding". Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  5. ^ "Members". Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  6. ^ "The Prize Amount". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  7. ^ "Nobel descendant slams Economics prize". The Local. 28 Sept 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b Samuel Brittan (19 December 2003). "The not so noble Nobel Prize". The Financial Times. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  9. ^ Sylvia Nasar (October 13 2001). "The Sometimes Dismal Nobel Prize in Economics". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Alex Millmow (May 2 2002). "An IgNobel Scandal". Post-Autistic Economics Review. Retrieved 2007-10-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Lindbeck, Assar (1994). Turning Sweden Around. MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0262121816. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Thorvaldur Gylfason (21 January 2005). "An Interview with Assar Lindbeck" (PDF). University of Iceland and CEPR. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  13. ^ Feldman, Burton (2000). The Nobel Prize: A History of Genius, Controversy, and Prestige. New York: Arcade. ISBN 155970537X.
  14. ^ Nassim Taleb (2007-10-23). "The pseudo-science hurting markets". Financial Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Lundberg, Erik (1969-12-10). "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1969: Presentation Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Lindbeck, Assar (1970-12-10). "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1970: Presentation Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Ohlin, Bertil (1971-12-10). "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1971: Presentation Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1972: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1972-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1973: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1973-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1977: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1977-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1983: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1983-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1978: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1978-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1982: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1982-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1984: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1984-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1990: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1990-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1991: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1991-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1992: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 1992-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2005: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 2005-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2006: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 2006-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2007: Press Release". Nobel Foundation. 2007-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ Tinbergen, Jan (1969-12-10). "Jan Tinbergen: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ Samuelson, Paul A. (1970-12-10). "Paul A. Samuelson: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. ^ Kuznets, Simon (1971-12-10). "Simon Kuznets: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ Harsanyi, John C. (1994-12-10). "John C. Harsanyi: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ von Hayek, Friedrich August (1974-12-10). "Friedrich August von Hayek: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ Koopmans, Tjalling C. (1975-12-10). "Tjalling C. Koopmans: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. ^ Friedman, Milton (1976-12-10). "Milton Friedman: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ Tobin, James (1981-12-10). "James Tobin: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ Phelps, Edmund S. (2006-12-10). "Edmund S. Phelps: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ Schultz, Theodore W. (1979-12-10). "Theodore W. Schultz: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ Lucas Jr., Robert E. (1995-12-10). "Robert E. Lucas Jr.: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Allais, Maurice (1988-12-10). "Maurice Allais: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ Klein, Lawrence R. (1980-12-10). "Lawrence R. Klein: Banquet Speech". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ Tickner, Neil (2005-10-10). "University of Maryland Economist Wins Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics". University of Maryland. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  45. ^ "The 2003 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics: Analyzing Data with Irregular Trends and Volatility". National Science Foundation. 2004-12-23. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  46. ^ Associated Press (2007-10-15). "Recent winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  47. ^ "All Laureates in Economics". the Nobel Foundation. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-25.

External links

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