In good terms – The prestigious distinction is not cited in the will of Alfred Nobel, and was created only much later by the Swedish bank.
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Nicknamed the “Nobel d’Economics”, the economics price in memory of Alfred Nobel, which is awarded Monday, October 11 is not strictly speaking a “Nobel Prize” in the same way as the other distinctions announced the first week of October by the Swedish Foundation.
Swedish chemist and industrialist, inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel legua in 1895 most of his immense fortune (31 million Swedish kroner, the equivalent of 230 million euros today) to a fund intended to reward Those who “over the past year will have returned to humanity the greatest services” in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.
Same ceremony, even endowment, but a different name
Economics did not appear in the initial list. It was not until 1968 that the Governor of the Central Bank of Sweden suggested, for the tricentenary of the institution, the creation of this award, in agreement with the Nobel Foundation and the Royal Academy of Sciences of Sweden, which was already responsible for awarding prices in physics and chemistry. Il Appears on the official Nobel website alongside others. But its exact title is “price of the Central Bank of Sweden in economics in memory of Alfred Nobel”.
Awarded since 1969, the “Nobel Economics Prize” is awarded by the King of Sweden during the same ceremony as the others, on December 10, the day anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. The winners all receive the same endowment, which amounts to 9 million Swedish kroner (about 870,000 euros).
The existence of this price has been regularly called into question for its lack of diversity. Of the 86 people rewarded between 1969 and 2020, there is an overwhelming majority of Americans (67), only two women, and many representatives of the neoliberal economy, which regularly causes controversy at the time of its allocation .