Comment by huitzitziltzin

Comment by huitzitziltzin 9 hours ago

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Economist here…

An unexpected (to me!) prize but definitely a good one.

What’s notable is that mokyr’s research is very, very accessible to a layman. You can read his books and understand them nearly perfectly without needing substantial technical background. (Of course there’s a huge existing literature in economics and history he’s engaging with which you won’t know, but I’m not an economic historian either so a lot of it is unfamiliar to me too.). Try it! Hopefully you learn something.

Also the committee always releases a good non-technical summary of the laureates work and an even better “more technical” summary. You can start there for an overview.

As for the point which will be raised endlessly here that this is “not a real Nobel” - whatever. No one in the economics profession cares. Alfred Nobel doesn’t have a monopoly on prizes or priority to decide which fields are worth recognizing. It’s our highest prestige prize. Call it what you want.

nibles_and_bits 4 hours ago

No one in the economics profession cares.

Another contradiction by a member of the economics profession. It seems to me they care very much. By linking the prize to Alfred Nobel’s name (and to the Nobel institutions), the Riksbank ensured the prize would immediately carry great symbolic prestige. The Nobel brand was already well established internationally, so adopting the name helped the economics prize gain recognition, gravitas, and legitimacy.

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  • huitzitziltzin 4 hours ago

    I stand by my statement.

    I’d love an estimate from you (or anyone) about the marginal effect on the profession’s “legitimacy” (which is what? and how’s it measured?) from having the prize include Nobel’s name vs. not including it.

    Really we don’t care.

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    • HSO 10 minutes ago

      I’d love an estimate from you (or anyone) about the marginal effect on the profession’s “care” (which is what? and how’s it measured?) from having the prize include Nobel’s name vs. not including it.

      Since you stand by your statement so strongly, you should have it already, correct?

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    • nibles_and_bits 36 minutes ago

      Really we don’t care.

      My point was speak for yourself, the history does not suggest you are correct. Evidence economists do care[1][2][3]. Economics was still a relatively newer niche discipline[4].

      [1] https://developingeconomics.org/2024/10/22/the-nobel-illusio...

      [2] https://ideas.repec.org/b/pup/pbooks/10841.html

      [3] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/nobel-priz...

      [4] https://cooperative-individualism.org/parrish-john_rise-of-e...

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    • littlestymaar 3 hours ago

      You care so little you spent time to claim you don't care twice in a row.

      > I’d love an estimate from you (or anyone) about the marginal effect on the profession’s “legitimacy” (which is what? and how’s it measured?) from having the prize include Nobel’s name vs. not including it.

      I don't have an estimate for that, but we have an estimate on how much money the Sverige Riskbank bankers were ready to spend in that effort. Maybe it didn't pan out but some people definitely had a multimillion dollar interest in making that happen. As an economist you must wonder what their incentives could have been …

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      • hn_throwaway_99 3 hours ago

        > You care so little you spent time to claim you don't care twice in a row.

        I've seen this style of argument before and I think it's a non sequitur and total BS. The fact that he may care about feeling his opinion is being misrepresented is totally different from what his original "we don't care" statement referred to.

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  • caycep 2 hours ago

    I think OP meant that economists do consider the prize highly despite the distinction between its particular situation vs. the "core Nobels"

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  • JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago

    > It seems to me they care very much

    I’d actually argue that the only people who love this piece of trivia are economists, financiers and a particular vein of Reddit.

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  • dkga 2 hours ago

    What the other poster meant was that economists don’t care that it is not an original Nobel prize.

    Source: also an economist

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snowAbstraction 3 hours ago

Maybe I will try Mokyr. I saw his "A Culture of Growth" is available as an audio book. What do you think about that book? Thanks

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dkural 9 hours ago

Agreed! I am a big fan of Robert Allen's books on the industrial revolution as a counterpoint to Mokyr. (The two are of course are friends with each other as well).

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laborcontract 4 hours ago

Are there any good papers floating out there?

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  • huitzitziltzin 4 hours ago

    Sure…

    Mokyr’s northwestern website has links to a lot of his papers.

    An extremely crude selection rule:

    Anything published in the American economic review, quarterly journal of economics, journal of political economy has the profession’s “highest stamp of approval”. It’s really hard to publish anything there. (There are two journals im not listing in that “top” category but he has no papers there on his website.). On aghion or howitts websites, look for the above journals but also econometrica and the review of economic studies. Those are the “top five” in the field.

    There are surely papers in good history and Econ history journals on mokyr’s website but I don’t know the journals!

    Standards for any chapter in a “handbook of X economics” or “handbook of the economics of X” are high - those should be good surveys.

    Similarly a paper in the “annual review of economics”

    Also mokyr has a bunch of work on Amazon. “The lever of riches” is a classic. “A culture of growth” is well regarded.

    Finally he has a forthcoming book called “two paths to prosperity” with two other distinguished guys - one Econ historian (greif) and one political economy guy (tabellini). It’s coming out in about three weeks. Good timing, Princeton U Press!

    Aghion and howitt have a growth textbook at the advanced undergrad level called “the economics of growth.”

    They have a much more advanced work called “endogenous growth theory” which is for specialists (or at least anyone with first year PhD macro)

    Aghion has a book called “the power of creative destruction.”

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currymj 3 hours ago

if you run into anyone who is serious about the "fake Nobel" complaint, just ask them why they have such a high opinion of taking money from an arms dealer, and such a low opinion of taking money from a public institution in one of the Nordic welfare states.

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littlestymaar 3 hours ago

I'm not familiar with the two others but Aghion really isn't a surprise given the track record the Nobel committee for the econ prize has of following hype rather than anything else.

(I've been very critical of Aghion's work for the past few years since I've been exposed to his work over that period, but it always appeared to me as a potential laureate given the resonance of his work)

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