Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, formally the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is awarded annually for outstanding contributions to economics. It was established in 1968 by Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, to mark the bank's 300th anniversary, and first awarded in 1969 to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen for work on econometric models. Although administered by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences alongside the physics and chemistry prizes, with the same medal ceremony and prize purse, it is technically distinct from the five prizes Alfred Nobel endowed in his 1895 will (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace). Critics — including members of the Nobel family and some economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Gunnar Myrdal — have argued that calling it a Nobel lends scientific authority to a less unified discipline; supporters point to the rigor of the selection process and the stature of laureates. Notable recipients span schools and methods, from Paul Samuelson, Milton Friedman, and Kenneth Arrow on theory to behavioral economists like Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, development economists like Amartya Sen and Esther Duflo, and institutional scholars like Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, and Elinor Ostrom — the first woman to win, in 2009, for her work on Ostrom's Design Principles for Commons.