Ben S. Bernanke, a former head of the US Federal Reserve, and two other economists from the US, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, have each been given this year’s Nobel Prize in economic sciences “for research on banks and financial crises.” The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm hosted the Nobel committee on Monday, when they revealed the winner.
The group claimed that their research had demonstrated “why avoiding bank collapses is crucial.” The financial reward for the Nobel Prizes is 10 million Swedish kronor, or roughly $900,000. It will be awarded on December 10.
The Economics Prize was established by the Swedish Central Bank in Alfred Nobel’s honour, not by his will, which established the other prizes, in 1895. In 1969, the first winner was chosen.
David Card received half of the prize last year for his analysis of the effects of immigration, education, and the minimum wage on the labour market. Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens each received half of the prize for their suggestions on how to examine problems that don’t readily lend themselves to conventional scientific approaches.
The recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature is the French author Annie Ernaux. Her books that bravely draw on her experiences as a working-class woman to examine life in France during the 1940s were praised by the panel for skillfully fusing fiction and autobiography.