Category Archives: Nobel Prize

Why is the Nobel Prize sometimes awarded to economists with opposing viewpoints?

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April 14, 2022  —   Question from The International Economy:  Economics is the only field in which people can share a Nobel Prize for arriving at the complete opposite conclusion, something that arguably actually happened.  Should the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Be Put on Hold? —

My response:

It is true that the Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded in the same year to economists representing opposite viewpoints.  Not just once, but three times.

In 2013, the topic was stock markets. The winners included both Eugene Fama, for his work on the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH), and Robert Shiller, for his rejection of the EMH in favor of the existence of bubbles, excessive volatility, and investor behavior that departs from rational expectations. read more

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What Three Economists Taught Us About Currency Arrangements

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April 24, 2021 — A generation of great international economists is passing from the scene.  Richard Cooper died on December 23. An American, he was teaching his classes at Harvard until the very end. Robert Mundell, passed away on April 4.  Originally Canadian, he was a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics.  And John Williamson, on April 11. Originally British, he had been the first scholar hired by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

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Bill Nordhaus & Paul Romer, Nobel Prize winners

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October 8, 2018 — Congratulations to Bill Nordhaus and Paul Romer on winning the ultimate prize in Economics.  When I first heard, I wondered what the two have in common, beyond both doing path-breaking Nobel-worthy research. 

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