Re: No Nobel

["Per Gunnar Berglund" <pgb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 In reply to Bill Lear and John Tyler:
    As the only Swede on board, I feel inclined to throw in some more
details. The Nobel Prize is administered by the Royal Academy of Science,
according to the will of Alfred Nobel. The former head of the Riksbank (our
central bank), Per Åsbrink, had another prize in economics installed in
1968, funded by the Riksbank. This prize, thus, is not in the will of Alfred
Nobel -- indeed it is called "The Riksbank's economics prize in memory of
Alfred Nobel". The economics prize gets much of its prestige from the
strange fact that it shares the ceremonies with all the other, real Nobel
prizes. Now, what the Swedish Academy (not the Royal Academy of Science) has
been arguing, is that there is no reason for this Riksbank prize to share
the ceremonies with the other Nobel prizes. The Academy, which is a literary
rather than scientific institution, is much older and even more prestigious
than the Royal Academy of Science, and this is what makes their criticism so
embarrassing for the RAS. The Swedish Academy has merely pointed out the
truth that the Riksbank's prize is not in the will of Alfred Nobel, and
therefore it should not be a part of the Nobel ceremonies. The Riksbank
should feel free to award an economics prize, says the Academy, but the
prize should be clearly separated, ceremonially, from the other Nobel
prizes.

Per

Per Gunnar Berglund
Lilla Sallskapets vag 60
127 61  SKARHOLMEN
SWEDEN

Voice/fax +46-(0)8-883065



-----Original Message-----
From: William S. Lear <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: POST-KEYNESIAN THOUGHT <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: den 20 september 1997 00:46
Subject: Re: No Nobel



On Fri, September 19, 1997 at 15:40:35 (PDT) John Tyler writes:
>On September 10, 1997, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported that
>the Swedish Academy had requested the Nobel Institute not to issue a
>prize for economics.  Any comments?

I was under the impression that there was no Nobel Prize for economics
issued by the Nobel Institute, but one called the Nobel Memorial Prize
issued by the Swedish Bank.


Bill