Optimising Nobel Prize Laureates

The Nobel Prize, which has existed since 1901, is awarded to persons (and on rare occasion to institutions) who have achieved outstanding results in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and the pursuit of peace. The history of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences – awarded for the first time in 1969 and officially known as the ‘Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel’ – shows a slightly different picture, since in the first two decades it was awarded to still living “doyens” of this branch of science (Frisch, Tinbergen, Hicks, Myrdal, Hayek, Haavelmo, Coase – just to mention a few of them). In recent years, this prize serves primarily for the recognition of research results: In 1994, 2005, 2007, 2012 and 2014 the prize was awarded to scientists excelling in various game theories, in 1996 and 2001 to experts working in the field of asymmetric information, and in 2002 to experts researching the link between psychology and economic science. In 2010 and 2016, the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded in the field of labour market analysis and contract theory, respectively. It appears as if the Committee awarding the prize first chose a generally topical subject matter and then award the Prize to experts who are successful and produce outstanding results in that field. 2018 was no exception. Although the laudation of the two laureates – William Nordhaus and Paul Romer – mentions their excellent scientific achievement, as they received the Prize “for their work analysing the impact of climate change on global economy, and related to the endogenous growth theory”, a more detailed analysis shows that here again there is a very strong link between the two scientists in terms of content and methodology, since the problem of sustainability and the application of the optimisation procedures, mentioned in the title, also connects them.