The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2021 has been awarded one half to David Card and the other half jointly to Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W Imbens.


David Card has been awarded the 2021 prize in economic sciences “for his empirical contributions to labour economics.”


Joshua D Angrist and Guido W Imbens have been awarded the 2021 prize in economic sciences “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.”


This year’s economic sciences laureates have demonstrated that many of society’s big questions can be answered. Their solution is to use natural experiments – situations arising in real life that resemble randomised experiments.


The 2021 economic sciences laureates have provided us with new insights about the labour market and shown what conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn from natural experiments. Their approach has spread to other fields and revolutionised empirical research.


The announcement of the 2021 Prize in Economic Sciences was made by Professor Göran K. Hansson, Secretary-General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on Monday, October 11, at 11:45 CEST (3:15 pm IST). 


The 2020 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats". 


History of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences


Between 1969 and 2020, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded 52 times to 86 laureates.


Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen were the first persons to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. They were awarded "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes."


Elinor Ostrom was the first woman to be awarded the prize in economic sciences. The award was equally divided between Elinor Ostrom "for her analysis of economic governance, especial the commons" and Oliver E. Williamson "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm."


The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel came to India for the first time when economist Amartya Sen was awarded the Prize in 1998.


The 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded jointly to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."


At 47 years of age, Esther Duflo became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. She also became the second female to be awarded the prize.


The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2007 was awarded jointly to Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory."


Leonid Hurwicz, who was 90 years old when he was awarded in 2007, is the oldest economic sciences laureate to date.


John Nash, the 1994 Nobel laureate in Economics awarded the Prize for his work on game theory, was "a mathematical genius" who battled mental health issues.


He said, "I was affected in this way for a very long period of time, like 25 years, so it was quite a portion of a life's history."


Richard H. Thaler, the 2017 Economic Sciences laureate awarded "for his contributions to behavioural economics" had earlier said, "I wasn't a great student. My thesis advisor famous said: We didn't expect much of him."


Due to the pandemic, the Nobel celebrations this year have been a combination of virtual and physical events.


The Nobel Prize medals and the Nobel Prize diploma will be received by the laureates in their home countries in December, according to the Nobel Prize Organisation. Each laureate will also be awarded an amount of 10 million Swedish Kronor.


The announcement is streamed live on the official digital channels of the Nobel Prize.