Nobel economics prize goes to 'natural experiments' pioneers

Record ID: 1641038

  • Title: Nobel economics prize goes to 'natural experiments' pioneers
  • Date: 11th October 2021
  • Summary: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (OCTOBER 11, 2021) (REUTERS) MEMBERS OF ROYAL SWEDISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ENTERING ROOM FOR NOBEL ANNOUNCEMENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE ROYAL SWEDISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, GORAN HANSSON, SAYING: "The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has today decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, with one half to David Card for his empirical contributions to labour economics and the other half jointly to Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships." SCREEN SHOWING PHOTOGRAPHS OF WINNERS OF NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES (LEFT TO RIGHT): ECONOMISTS DAVID CARD, JOSHUA ANGRIST AND GUIDO IMBENS VARIOUS OF MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN MEMORY OF ALFRED NOBEL, EVA MORK, DESCRIBING THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PRIZE WITH PRESENTATION ON SCREEN (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN MEMORY OF ALFRED NOBEL, EVA MORK "Natural experiments are everywhere. So thanks to the contributions of the laureates we researchers are today able to answer key questions for economic and social policy and thereby the laureates' work has greatly benefited the society at large." PRESENTATION ON SCREEN NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 25th October 2021 13:02
  • Keywords: David Card Guido Imbens Joshua Angrist Nobel prize Royal Swedish Academy economic sciences natural experiements
  • Location: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
  • City: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
  • Country: Sweden
  • Topics: Europe,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EYPSRPJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Economists David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens won the 2021 Nobel economics prize on Monday (October 11) for pioneering "natural experiments" to show real-world economic impacts in areas from the U.S. fast-food sector to migration from Castro-era Cuba.
    Unlike in medicine or other sciences, economists cannot conduct rigidly controlled clinical trials.
    Instead, natural experiments use real-life situations to study impacts on the world, an approach that has spread to other social sciences.
    Past Nobel Economics prizes have been dominated by U.S. institutions and this was no exception.
    Canada-born Card currently works at the University of California, Berkeley; Angrist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Dutch-born Imbens at Stanford University.
    One experiment by Card on the impact on the fast-food sector of a minimum wage increase in the U.S. state of New Jersey in the early 1990s prompted a review of the conventional wisdom that such increases should always lead to falls in employment.
    The committee also noted that natural experiments were difficult to interpret, but that Angrist and Imbens had in the mid-1990s solved methodological problems to show that precise conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn from them.
    "I was just absolutely stunned to get a telephone call, then I was just absolutely thrilled to hear the news," Imbens said on a call with reporters in Stockholm, adding he was thrilled to share the prize with two of his good friends.
    Angrist was best man at his wedding.
    The prize, formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the last of this year's crop of Nobels and sees the winners share a sum of 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14 million).
    (Production: Philip O'Connor, Ilze Filks, Marissa Davison)
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