2008 Economics Nobel Prize: Paul Krugman

Posted by: Matt Nolan on: October 14, 2008

In: Economic theory
5 Comments

Paul Krugman won the 2008 Economics Nobel prize for his work on trade theory.

This was a surprising result for me, as he is still relatively young and I expected Sargent to win. However, he is a deserving winner – congratulations are in order.

Anti-Dismal goes into more detail, and links to a number of economics blog reactions on the prize, enjoy.

BTW, No Right Turn is correct that it is not really a strict Nobel prize – but I don’t think that fundamentally knocks down its importance. After all behind the Nobel peach prize I was say the “not-Noble” economics prize comes second in terms of international awareness.

5 Responses to "2008 Economics Nobel Prize: Paul Krugman"

1 | Kimble
October 14, 2008 at 10:49 am

No surprise that this is how he is being introduced:
http://business.smh.com.au/business/bush-critic-krugman-wins-nobel-prize-20081014-501g.html

Implication:
Bush critic wins Nobel prize, proves Bush, the Republicans, and the Right in general to be wrong on everything

I think he does deserve the prize, but cringe that the partisan loon-baggery he engages in now just received a big boost in credibility.

2 | Matt Nolan
October 14, 2008 at 11:35 am

Hi Kimble,

I still find his rhetoric less irritating that Stiglitz – that guy drives me nutty with his constant misrepresentations of economic theory.

Also, I get less irritated when I separate the “economist” and the “policy maker” dimensions of these people. As economists they are both brilliant – however, moving to policy making involves making value judgments, something I don’t necessarily have to think they they are in the best position to make 🙂

3 | Stephen
October 14, 2008 at 9:03 pm

I suspected, but had no idea Stiglitz was that er, ‘nutty’. My first clue was in a column my Don Brash that knocked down a fair bit of what Stiglitz said about something or other, which apparently wasn’t that hard because although he did win a Nobel, he was pontificating about something that wasn’t actually in his field . Hmm.

4 | Matt Nolan
October 15, 2008 at 7:09 am

“although he did win a Nobel, he was pontificating about something that wasn’t actually in his field ”

That is one of the things that gets to me with Stiglitz as well, the man is a genius – but he is commenting on a field he didn’t study in, and telling the public completely misleading things about how economists actually do economics. When I went to his talk in Wellington I nearly walked out I was so disappointed.

5 | Miguel Sanchez
October 15, 2008 at 7:14 pm