October 9, 2022, 8:39 PM
October 9, 2022, 8:39 PM
Tomorrow, around 7:00, Bolivian time, the name of the person (or persons, maximum three) who won the Nobel Prize in Economics will be known.
The ceremony is accessed through Nobelprize.org. The award ceremony will take place in mid-December.
For details on how the Nobel Prize is chosen, Juan Carlos de Pablo, journalist for La Nación (Argentina) interviewed the American Oliver Eaton Williamson who in 2009 shared the award with Elinor Claire Ostrom, the first woman to receive this distinction.
How is the mechanism for choosing the Nobel laureates?
In this regard, it is best to quote the Swedish Assar Carl Eugen Lindbeck, who, since its creation, in 1968, and for several decades, ‘managed’ the mechanism for awarding the prize.
Wasn’t the Nobel in Economics created like those in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace at the beginning of the 20th century?
Indeed, when in 1968 the Central Bank of Sweden celebrated its first 300 years of existence, He had no better idea to celebrate it than to finance the Nobel Prize in Economics, which is not called that, but operates with the same rules.
Every October, a form is sent to professors working in 75 economics departments around the world, asking them to propose candidates. Between 150 and 200 proposals are received, corresponding to between 75 and 125 people.
The committee evaluates the recommendations; that is, it takes into account who recommends whom. Then, he raises a proposal, which is decided by a simple majority, in secret ballot, by the plenary session of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Unsolicited suggestions are not considered. The committee asks for monographs from experts on each of the candidates on the “short list”, experts who are a minority of Swedes.
The committee favors the originality of the investigations, its importance and its impact on scientific work. That Friedrich August von Hayek and Gunnar Myrdal were politically antipodes did not concern the committee, who paid attention to the work done on the importance of money in explaining business cycles in the 1930s.
In this regard, Sylvia Nassar points out that “Lindbeck, with a reputation for being courageous, fought for John Forbes Nash received the Nobel Prize in Economics” despite his mental health problems. Award that, in 1994, shared with John Charles Harsanyi and Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten.
Why were you awarded the Nobel Prize?
According to the Nobel Committee, for my analysis of economic governance, especially which tasks are carried out inside and which outside each company. I showed that markets and hierarchical organizations, such as companies, represent alternative governance structures, which take a different approach to conflict resolution.
The problem with markets is that they encourage bargaining and disagreement; The problem with companies is that their managers abuse their power.
Any hunch, for tomorrow?
-No. I fully trust the work of the Nobel Committee. Every economist has her candidates (sometimes him or herself), but I review the list of the 89 winners so far and I can’t find anyone to cross out.
This year the lights are on eight economists: Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, Simon Johnson, Richard A. Easterlin, Richard Layard, Andrew J. Oswald, Samuel Bowles, and Herbert GintisThis, according to Clarivate Analytics, a company that owns and operates a collection of services focused primarily on data analysis, including scientific research.
