WHO ARE IN THE LIST OF RACE FOR NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS?

The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences, called Nobel Prize, in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced on Monday, October 11^th. The prize is generally acknowledged as the definitive accolade in terms of the kudos and reputation it affords both its recipients and the universities to which they are affiliated. Thus there is speculation and expectations regarding this and the betting market are no exception. This lists the active and expired candidates on the betting meter.

To come to the basics, if we look at the biographical characteristics of prizewinners in economics, there seems the dominance of USA. About two-thirds of laureates have been US citizens, three-quarters have been affiliated to a small number of top American universities, and two-thirds have received their doctorates from American universities. Some kind of association with the University of Chicago seems particularly useful. Nine prizes have gone to Chicago faculty members - more than twice as many as any other university anywhere in the world. Chicago has also provided PhD training to more Nobel prizewinners than any other university.

My choice, a very short one, for this year’s contender:

• Robert Barro, Paul Romer and Ed Prescott for Macroeconomic theory

• Jagdish Bhagwati, Paul Krugman, Avinash Dixit and Kenneth Rogoff for trade theory

• William D Nordhaus, William J Baumol for resource economics,

Fama, and Phelps are also underdogs in this race.