Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
| Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Outstanding contributions in Economic Sciences |
| Presented by | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |
| Country | Sweden |
| First awarded | 1969 |
| Official website | http://nobelprize.org |
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics (Swedish: ), is an award for outstanding contributions to the science of economics and is generally considered one of the most prestigious awards for that science. The official name is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Swedish: ). It is not one of the Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel during 1895, but is commonly identified with them. The Prize in Economics, as it is referred to by the Nobel Foundation, was established and endowed by Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, during 1968 on the Bank's 300th anniversary, in memory of Alfred Nobel's 1895 will. Like the Nobel Laureates in Chemistry and Physics, Laureates in Economics are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a Prize Committee similar to the Nobel Committees are used. It was first awarded during 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."
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Funding of the Prize
An endowment "in perpetuity" from Sveriges Riksbank pays the Nobel Foundation's administrative expenses associated with the prize and funds the monetary component of the award. Since 2001, the monetary portion of the Prize in Economics has been 10 million Swedish kronor (during 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 in the Nobel Foundation's internet webpage.
Relation to the Nobel Prize
The nomination process, selection criteria, and awards presentation of the Prize in Economic Sciences are performed in a manner similar to that of the Nobel Prizes. 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", which stipulates that the prize is awarded annually to "those who ... shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind". The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is the only non-Nobel prize that has ever been associated officially with the Nobel Foundation.
Award nomination and selection process
Announcement of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 2008
According to its official website, 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".
Each September the Academy's Economics Prize Committee, which consists of five elected members, "sends invitations to thousands of scientists, members of academies and university professors in numerous countries, asking them to nominate candidates for the Prize in Economics for the coming year. Members of the Academy and former laureates are also authorised to nominate candidates." 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 is 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 laureate or laureates of the Prize in Economics. 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 cannot be disclosed publicly for 50 years.
With the Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature, 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.
Changes to the prize
Sylvia Nasar wrote in her book that during February 1995, after acrimony pertaining to the awarding of the 1994 Prize in Economics to John Forbes Nash, the Prize in Economics was redefined as a prize in social science, making it available for researchers of such topics as political science, psychology, and sociology. Moreover, the composition of the Economics Prize Committee changed to include two non-economists. This has not 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 during 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 (who was a recipient of the prize himself) and former Swedish minister of finance Kjell-Olof Feldt have also advocated that the Prize in Economics should be abolished. Myrdal's position of wanting the prize abolished was based in the fact that it had been given to such "reactionaries" as Friedrich Hayek (whom Myrdal shared the 1974 Prize in Economics with) and afterwards to Milton Friedman in 1976.
In his speech at the 1974 Nobel Banquet Friedrich Hayek stated that if he had been consulted whether to establish a Nobel Prize in economics he would "have decidedly advised against it" primarily because "the Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority which in economics no man ought to possess... This does not matter in the natural sciences. Here the influence exercised by an individual is chiefly an influence on his fellow experts; and they will soon cut him down to size if he exceeds his competence. But the influence of the economist that mainly matters is an influence over laymen: politicians, journalists, civil servants and the public generally."
Critics cite the apparent snub of Joan Robinson as evidence of the Committee's bias towards mainstream economics, though heterodox economists like Friedrich Hayek (Austrian School) and Ronald Coase (associated with New institutional economics) have won. The University of Chicago has garnered nine of these Prizes—more than any other university—interpretted by some [] as a bias against candidates with alternative views.
Milton Friedman was awarded the 1976 prize in part for his work on monetarism. The prize to Friedman caused international protests, primarily in relation to a six-day trip he took to Chile during March 1975 where he gave lectures on inflation and met with many Chilean government officials, including the dictator Augusto Pinochet. Four Nobel Prize laureates – George Wald, Linus Pauling, David Baltimore and Salvador Luria – wrote letters to the protesting the award in October 1976.
The 1994 prize to John Forbes Nash caused controversy within the prize's selection committee because of his history of mental illness and alleged anti-semitism. The controversy resulted in a change to the rules governing the committee during 1994. Previously, members of the Economics Prize Committee members did not have any limit to their term of service; they now serve for three years.
The 2005 prize to Robert Aumann was criticized by European press due to his alleged use of his research of game theory to justify his stance against the dismantling of Israeli settlements from occupied territories. A petition to cancel his prize garnered 1000 signatures worldwide.
The 2008 prize to Paul Krugman, a major critic of George W. Bush, provoked controversy about a bias of the award, prompting the prize committee to deny that "...the committee has ever taken a political stance."
Alternative names
The official Swedish name of the Prize is . 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 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
Main article: Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
| Name | Years | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Bertil Ohlin | Chairman 1969-1974 | Stockholm School of Economics |
| Erik Lundberg | 1969-1979 Chairman 1975-1979 |
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 |
University of Stockholm |
| Ingemar Ståhl | 1980- | University of Lund |
| Karl-Göran Mäler | 1981- | Stockholm School of Economics |
| Name | Years | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Jörgen Weibull | 1998–2007
Chairman 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 Teräsvirta | 2003?- | Professor of Economic Statistics (emeritus) Stockholm School of Economics Professor of Econometrics |
| Bertil Holmlund | Adjunct member 1998-2001, 2005-2006 Chairman 2008 |
Professor of Economics Uppsala University |
Laureates
Main article: List of Nobel laureates in Economics
Until 2009, all laureates in economics had been men. In 2009, Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to be awarded the prize. All other five Nobel Prizes had previously been awarded at some time to a woman.
As of 2008, about 60% of 'Economics Nobel laureates' have been US citizens (by birth or by naturalization), with only four laureates being from outside the US or Western Europe (Arthur Lewis, Leonid Kantorovich, Amartya Sen and Robert Mundell).
See also
- List of Nobel laureates by country
- List of Nobel laureates in Economics by age
- List of Nobel laureates in Economics
- John Bates Clark Medal
Notes
- Nasar, Sylvia (1998). . New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81906-6.
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Categories: Economics awards | Nobel Memorial Prizes | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences