Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Totally Explained

Everything about Nobel Memorial Prize In Economics totally explained

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially named The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Swedish: Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an award for outstanding contributions in the field of economics and is generally considered one of the most prestigious awards in that field. It is commonly referred to as the "Nobel Prize in Economics" and it's identified with the Nobel Prizes, although it isn't one of the five Nobel Prizes (in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace) which were established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895. The Prize in Economics, as it's frequently referred to by the Nobel Foundation, is a prize established in memory of Alfred Nobel in 1968 on the 300th anniversary of Sveriges Riksbank (the central bank of Sweden, sometimes called the Bank of Sweden or the Swedish National Bank). It was first awarded in 1969 to the Dutch and Norwegian economists Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch, "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes." Like the Nobel Laureates in Chemistry and Physics, Laureates in Economics are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Funding of the Prize

An endowment "in perpetuity" from Sveriges Riksbank covers the Nobel Foundation's administrative expenses associated with the prize and funds the monetary part of the award. Since 2001, the monetary portion of the Prize in Economics has been 10 million Swedish kronor (in January 2008, approx. US$1.6 million; 1.1 million Euro), equivalent to the amount given for the Nobel Prizes. Since 2006, Sveriges Riksbank has given the Nobel Foundation an annual grant of 6.5 million Swedish kronor (in January 2008, approx. US$1 million; 0.7 million Euro) for its administrative expenses associated with the prize as well as 1 million Swedish kronor (until the end of 2008) to include information about the prize on the Nobel Foundation's internet museum.

Relation to the Nobel Prize

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel isn't a Nobel Prize The Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "in accordance with the rules governing the award of the Nobel Prizes instituted through his [AlfredNobel's] will",

Award nomination and selection process

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "administers a researcher exchange with academies in other countries and publishes six scientific journals. Every year the Academy awards the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry, the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the Crafoord Prize and a number of other large prizes" (official website). All proposals and their supporting evidence must be received before February 1. The proposals are reviewed by the Prize Committee and specially appointed experts. Before the end of September, the committee chooses potential laureates. If there's a tie, 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 Prize in Economics Laureate(s). As with the Nobel Prizes, no more than three people can share the prize for a given year, they must still be living at the time of the Prize announcement in October, and information about Prize nominations can't be publicly disclosed for 50 years.
With the Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature, the each Laureate in Economics receives a diploma, gold medal, and monetary grant award document from the King of Sweden at the annual Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm, on December 10—the anniversary of Nobel's death.
On October 15, 2007 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Bank of Sweden, and the Nobel Foundation announced the Academy's award of the Prize in Economic Sciences to three Americans, Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin, and Roger Myerson, "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory. [Theirwork] has among other things helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes and voting procedures." Moreover, the composition of the Economics Prize Committee changed to include two non-economists. This hasn't been confirmed by the Economics Prize Committee. The members of the 2007 Economics Prize Committee contradict Nasar's claim since the secretary and 4 of the 5 members are professors of economics. One should note, however, that Herbert Simon was the first non-economist to win the prize in 1978 (his PhD was in political science, though his influence on economics is well-known).

Controversies and criticisms

Some critics argue that the prestige of the Prize in Economics derives in part from its association with the Nobel Prizes, an association that has often been a source of controversy. Among the most vocal critics of the Prize in Economics is the Swedish human rights lawyer Peter Nobel, a great-grandnephew of Alfred Nobel. Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal and former Swedish minister of finance Kjell-Olof Feldt have also advocated that the Prize in Economics should be abolished. Myrdal's objections were based on his view that the 1976 Prize in Economics to Milton Friedman and the 1974 Prize in Economics shared by Friedrich Hayek (both classical liberal economists) were undeserved, on the argument that the economics didn't qualify as a science. If he'd been asked about the establishment of the Prize before receiving it, Hayek stated that he'd "have decidedly advised against it."
Some critics claim the selection of recipients for the Prize in Economics is biased toward mainstream economics. The Department of Economics at the University of Chicago has garnered nine of these Prizes—more than any other university—leading some critics to opine that such an outcome demonstrates either a bias, or the appearance of one, against candidates with alternative views.. The prize to Friedman caused international protests, primarily in relation to a six-day trip he took to Chile in March 1975 where he gave lectures on inflation and met with many Chilean government officials, including the dictator Augusto Pinochet. In a letter to Newsweek published on June 14, 1976, the Citizens' Committee on Human Rights and Foreign Policies expressed "shock and dismay on learning Milton Friedman has been serving as an economic adviser to the Pinochet Chilean junta", to which Friedman replied that "I am not now, and never have been, an economic adviser to the Pinochet Chilean junta." while Baltimore and Luria claimed Friedman was "a major economic adviser and supporter of the Chilean junta". In Stockholm, demonstrators protested before and during Friedman's arrival for the Nobel festival. One protester shouted "Down with capitalism, freedom for Chile!" as Friedman was about to receive his prize from the King of Sweden, and was promptly ejected from the hall. The controversy resulted in a change to the rules governing the committee in 1994: while Economics Prize Committee members had no term limit, they now serve for three years.

Alternative names

The official Swedish name of the Prize is Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne. The Nobel Foundation's translations of the Swedish name into English have varied since 1969:

Years	Official name in English
1969–1970	Prize in Economic Science dedicated to the memory of Alfred Nobel
1971	Prize in Economic Science
1972	Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
1973–1975	Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel
1976–1977, 1983	Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
1978–1981, 1984–1990	Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
1982	Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science
1991	Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
1992–2005	Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
2006–present	The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

During the Nobel Banquet, many laureates have referred to the prize as something other than the "Prize in Economics":

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

While some sources observe that the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is commonly referred to informally as the "Nobel Prize in Economics," the press and other agencies have also called it by other names:

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
Nobel Memorial Prize

Economics Prize Committee members

Name	Years	Affiliation
Bertil Ohlin	Chairman 1969-1974	Stockholm School of Economics
Erik Lundberg	1969-1979 Chairman 1975-1979 Associate member 1980-	Stockholm School of Economics
Ingvar Svennilson	1969-1971	University of Stockholm
Herman Wold	1969-1980	University of Uppsala University of Gothenburg
Assar Lindbeck	1969-1994 Chairman 1980-1994	University of Stockholm
Ragnar Bentzel	1975-1990 Secretary 1969-1980, 1982-	University of Uppsala
Sune Carlson	1972-1979 Associate member 1980-	University of Uppsala
Lars Werin	1980- Secretary 1981 Associate member 1975-1979	University of Stockholm
Ingemar Ståhl	1980-	University of Lund
Karl-Göran Mäler	1981-	Stockholm School of Economics

Name	Years	Affiliation
Jörgen Weibull	1998–2007Chairman 2004–2007	A.O. Wallenberg Professor of Economics Stockholm School of Economics
Peter Englund	1993–1995 Secretary 1996–1997, 2002–	Professor of Banking and Insurance Stockholm School of Economics
Lars Calmfors	1996–1998, 2003–2007	Professor of International Economics Stockholm University
Bertil Näslund	1999	Professor Stockholm School of Economics
Per Krusell	2003–Adjunct member 2003–2004	Professor of Economics Princeton University
Karl-Gustaf Löfgren	2002?–	Professor of Economics Umeå University
Timo Tiräsvirta	2003?-	Professor of Economic Statistics (emeritus) Stockholm School of Economics Professor of Econometrics School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus
Bertil Holmlund	Adjunct member 1998-2001, 2005-2006 Chairman 2008	Professor of Economics Uppsala University

Laureates

The following chart lists all Laureates in Economics, the dates of their awards, their nationalities, and their award citations.

Year	Name	Citations
1969	Ragnar Frisch	"for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes."
1969	Jan Tinbergen
1970	Paul Samuelson	"for the scientific work through which he's developed static and dynamic economic theory and actively contributed to raising the level of analysis in economic science."
1971	Simon Kuznets	"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	"for their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory."
1972	Kenneth Arrow
1973	Wassily Leontief	"for the development of the input-output method and for its application to important economic problems."
1974	Gunnar Myrdal	"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."
1974	Friedrich Hayek
1975	Leonid Kantorovich (Леонид Канторович)	"for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources."
1975	Tjalling Koopmans
1976	Milton Friedman	"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	"for their pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements."
1977	James Meade
1978	Herbert Simon	"for his pioneering research into the decision-making process within economic organizations."
1979	Theodore Schultz	"for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries."
1979	Arthur Lewis
1980	Lawrence Klein	"for the creation of econometric models and the application to the analysis of economic fluctuations and economic policies."
1981	James Tobin	"for his analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices."
1982	George Stigler	"for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation."
1983	Gérard Debreu	"for having incorporated new analytical methods into economic theory and for his rigorous reformulation of the theory of general equilibrium."
1984	Richard Stone	"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	"for his pioneering analyses of saving and of financial markets."
1986	James M. Buchanan	"for his development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision-making."
1987	Robert Solow	"for his contributions to the theory of economic growth."
1988	Maurice Allais	"for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources."
1989	Trygve Haavelmo	"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	"for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics."
1991	Ronald Coase	"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	"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	"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	"for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games."
	John Forbes Nash
	Reinhard Selten
1995	Robert Lucas, Jr.	"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	"for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information."
1996	William Vickrey
1997	Robert C. Merton Myron Scholes	"for a new method to determine the value of derivatives."
1998	Amartya Sen	"for his contributions to welfare economics."
1999	Robert Mundell	"for his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas."
2000	James Heckman	"for his development of theory and methods for analyzing selective samples."
2000	Daniel McFadden	"for his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice."
2001	George Akerlof Michael Spence Joseph E. Stiglitz	"for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information."
2002	Daniel Kahneman	"for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty."
2002	Vernon L. Smith	"for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms."
2003	Robert F. Engle	"for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility (ARCH)."
2003	Clive Granger	"for methods of analyzing economic time series with common trends (cointegration)."
2004	Finn E. Kydland	"for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles."
2004	Edward C. Prescott
2005	Robert Aumann (ישראל אומן)	"for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis."
2005	Thomas Schelling
2006	Edmund Phelps	"for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy."
2007	Leonid Hurwicz Eric Maskin Roger Myerson	"for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory."

Demographics of the Laureates in Economics

Whereas the five Nobel Prizes have been awarded to females, all Laureates in Economics so far have been men.

Allusions to Laureates in Economics in popular culture

In the television series The West Wing, the fictional U.S. President Josiah Bartlet is a Laureate in Economics.

Further Information

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