Nobel Prize Controversies - Economics

Economics

See also: Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences#Controversies and criticisms

Economics was not on Nobel's original list of prize disciplines. The Bank of Sweden created it in 1969. Although governed by the same rules as the others, this prize was criticized by many, including members of the Nobel Family, for violating Nobel's intent. As of 2010, faculty of the University of Chicago had garnered nine Prizes—far more than any other university. This led to claims of bias against alternative or heterodox economics.

The 2008 prize went to Paul Krugman "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity". Krugman was a fierce critic of George W. Bush. The award produced charges of a left-wing bias, with headlines such as "Bush critic wins 2008 Nobel for economics", prompting the prize committee to deny "the committee has ever taken a political stance."

The 1994 prize to John Forbes Nash and others "for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games" caused controversy within the selection committee because of Nash' mental illness and alleged anti-Semitism. The controversy resulted in a change to the governing committee: members served three year instead of unlimited terms and the prize's scope expanded to include political science, psychology, and sociology.

The 1976 prize was awarded to Milton Friedman "for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilisation policy". The award caused international protests, mostly by the radical left, ostensibly because of Friedman's brief association with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. During March 1975 Friedman visited Chile and gave lectures on inflation, meeting with Pinochet and other government officials.