Berlin – These are questions that not only economic politicians have been concerned with for decades: Does the minimum wage cost jobs? How does immigration affect the labor market? And what is the relationship between spending on education and later income? These are questions that also concern the economists David Card (65), Joshua Angrist (61) and Guido Imbens (58).
Nobel Prize in Economics: Contributions to labor market economics awarded
All three researchers were recognized for their work in economics on Monday at the conclusion of the Nobel Prize announcements. This was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at noon in Stockholm. Half of the award, endowed with ten million kroner (around one million euros), goes to Card from Canada for his contributions to the labor market economy. The other half is shared by Angrist, who comes from the US state of Ohio, and the Dutch-American scientist Imbens, who was born in Eindhoven, for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships, i.e. the question of cause and effect.
David Card showed, among other things, that an increase in the minimum wage does not necessarily lead to fewer jobs – a statement that is above all in contradiction to neoclassical economic theory. Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens have developed a method to derive contexts of meaning from everyday life – even without controlled experiments. In the justification of the Nobel Prize Committee it is said that the economists have “revolutionized empirical research”. The researchers, all of whom teach at US universities, have given “new insights into the job market” with their work.
Economic Nobel Prize: The award mostly goes to men
In contrast to the other awards, the Nobel Prize for Economics does not go back directly to the will of the prize founder Alfred Nobel. It was launched in 1968 by the Swedish Reichsbank in memory of Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1969. Scientists from the USA are particularly often honored. Last year it was the US economists Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson who dealt with auction theory. 1999 was the last time that the Nobel Prize for Economics went to researchers from the United States. And: as a rule, it is men who receive awards. A total of 89 people have received this award so far, including only two women.
In 1994, the Bonn economist and mathematician Reinhard Selten was the only German to be honored for pioneering contributions to game theory – but not alone, but together with John Nash and John Harsanyi, two scientists with, of course, US roots.
.