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The Nobel Prize committee summarizes their contributions as follows: Some countries become trapped in a situation with extractive institutions and low economic growth. The introduction of inclusive institutions would create long-term benefits for everyone, but extractive institutions provide short-term gains for the people in power. As long as the political system guarantees they will remain…
This year, the Nobel Prize in medicine went to Victor Ambros, currently a Professor of Natural Science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. The two men won the award for their discovery of microRNA. One of the key questions of science is figuring…
Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman passed away today. His work incorporating psychology into economics through Prospect Theory has been a major advance. From the N.Y. Times obituary: Professor Kahneman delighted in pointing out and explaining what he called universal brain “kinks.” The most important of these, the behaviorists hold, is loss-aversion: Why, for example, does…
Yesterday it was announced that Claudia Goldin won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics (formerly the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel). She is the 3rd woman to have won the economics Nobel. The Nobel press release summarizes her research as follows: Women are vastly underrepresented in the global labour…
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. The prizewinner’s work lead to the development of COVID-19 vaccines which averted millions of deaths worldwide. The Nobel Prize press release describes the scientific breakthrough in more detail: Karikó and Weissman noticed that dendritic cells recognize in vitro transcribed mRNA as a…
The 2022 Nobel Prize for Medicine went to Svante Pääbo. Unlike many former winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Dr. Pääbo never actually invented any specific medicine or class of medicine. Rather the award was given “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”. The press release from the Nobel…
Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig. The award was given for the laureates role in improving our understanding of the role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises. The Nobel website summarizes their contribution as follows: For the economy to function, savings must be channelled to investments. However, there is a conflict…
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens due to their work on “natural experiments” and how this econometric technique can inform important research questions in labor economics. From the Nobel Prize press release: Using natural experiments, David Card has analysed the labour market effects of minimum wages, immigration and…
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian have won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.” Here is a summary of Professor Julius’ contribution from the BBC: Prof David Julius’s breakthrough, at the University of California, San Francisco, came from investigating the burning pain…
…Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer. The announcement on the 2019 Economics award on the Nobel website: This year’s Laureates have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty. In brief, it involves dividing this issue into smaller, more manageable, questions – for example, the most effective interventions for…