"Nobel" prize in Econ.

[Jan Bohlin]

>On Sat, 10 Oct 1998, Picciotto, Sol wrote:
>
>> According to the Financial Times, the Nobel prize fund has been
>> badly hit by the plunging markets, so there may not be enough cash
>> in the pot to hand out. Maybe they should have a moratorium on the
>> Economics prize this year, as its previous winners seem to have
>> suffered a collision with reality.
>
>That would certainly be fun, but the Economics prize is funded by some
>Swiss bank(s), isn't it?  I mean, it's not a *real* Nobel Prize, is
>it?  Alfred didn't set it up and I don't believe his legacy pays for
>it.
>
>Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.
>
>--
>
>Joseph Noonan
>jfn1 at msc.com

The Nobel Prize in economics is funded by The Swedish Central Bank. It  has
nothing to do with Alfred Nobel. It was started in 1968 at the banks 300th
birthday. It may well be the case that the fund that pays out the Nobel
Prize has lost much money in the stock market plunge. The Swedish Central
Bank also fund Social Science research through its Tercentenary Foundation.
I don't know if there is any connection between this fund and the Nobel
Prize fund. Anyway in 1992 when the Swedish stock market plunged last time
(not at all as severe as today!) the bank had to cut bank on its funding of
research projects. So I guess that it is Swedish Science research that will
be the victim of todays stock market crash rather  than the Nobel prize
winner.

Jan Bohlin
Department of Economic History, University of Gothenburg
Skanstorget 18
411 22 Goteborg
tel. +4631 7734736
fax. +4631 7744739
e-mail: Jan.Bohlin at econhist.gu.se