The Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, and others are seen as the pinnacle of achievement for artists across the globe. Awards like these attempt to encapsulate the very best in the fields they award. But for economics, for academics, the ultimate prize for discovery is the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, better known as the Nobel Prize for Economics, which is given to the most significant advancement in the study and practical use of economics in a calendar year.
In 1968, the prize was introduced. The Sveriges Riksbank donated to the Nobel Foundation and started the prize in the memory of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize. And after the very first was handed out in 1969 to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen for work in econometrics, the prize has been given out every single year to help push innovation across the globe.
This year, the prize was awarded to William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for their advancements in connecting climate change and technological advancements with economics. More specifically, Romer was able to build models to determine what sorts of market conditions facilitate innovation, something unfathomable just a few decades ago. His work in explaining how policy committed to the resources of technology can facilitate the growth and new forms of tools we use in our lives.
Speaking more towards the history of William Nordhaus, it was his own idea to begin carbon taxation, the idea that businesses would disincentivized for emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Through his work in explaining climate change and economic policy, he has been able to put together a more focused message that has helped nations in Europe regulate emissions, even if the US still has failed to implement these suggestions.
In either case, the very existence of this prize in itself is an incentive. The prize is $1 million. Even though these professors may have the resources necessary to be able to pursue whatever studies they want, the prize can become a way to push economists to find new ways to help the world, and that is what's most important.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/08/two-americans-win-nobel-prize-economics/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e7e517eb5ed3
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2018/summary/
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/
I thought this blog was very interesting. It explored how broad and applicable economics could be as a field and did so while taking into account relevant discussions ie. climate change. I really liked how you broke climate change down into something economic and expanded on how the market influences climate change and the could possibility prevent it. The concept of incentives in the market place is really interesting. Carbon tax is one of those interesting concepts and I feel the US should probably initialize the program nationally.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post because it connected a very popular and current topic of climate change with economics. This is another example of how economics is applied in the real world and through examples we are familiar with. This is similar to those we have seen in the documentaries about Google, Atari, Minecraft, etc. I also liked the part where you discussed the carbon tax, something many people are aware of, and I wasn't aware that it was created by economists.
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