Nobel Laureates
Forty-seven current or past NBER research affiliates and board members have received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
The Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, Sweden.
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Research associates Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity." The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained that the three scholars "contributed innovative research about what affects countries' economic prosperity." Their work highlights the critical role of political and economic institutions in affecting the evolution of...
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Research associate Claudia Goldin has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for having advanced our understanding of women's labor market outcomes." The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained that Goldin "provided the first comprehensive account of women's earnings and labor market participation through the centuries. Her research reveals the causes of change, as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap."
Goldin is the Henry Lee...
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Former NBER research associate Ben Bernanke, current research associate Douglas Diamond, and Philip Dybvig have been awarded the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in recognition of their "research on banks and financial crises." In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained that "Modern banking research clarifies why we have banks, how to make them less vulnerable in crises, and how bank collapses exacerbate financial crises. [...
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Long-time NBER research associates Joshua Angrist, David Card, and Guido Imbens have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in recognition of their contributions to labor economics and the analysis of natural experiments.
In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained that “Card’s studies of core questions for society, and Angrist and Imbens’ methodological contributions, have shown that natural experiments are a rich source...
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Abhijit Banerjee is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT and a co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). He is a research associate in the NBER programs on Development Economics and Economic Fluctuations and Growth. Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT and a co-director of JPAL. She is a research associate in four NBER programs:...
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William Nordhaus is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale and a research associate in four NBER programs: Economic Fluctuations and Growth, Environment and Energy, Productivity/ Innovation/ Entrepreneurship, and Public Economics. His initial NBER affiliation dates to the late 1960s, and he has been a research associate since 1979. Paul Romer is a professor of economics at NYU's Stern School of Business, where he directs the Urbanization Project...
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Richard Thaler is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, as well as a research associate in the NBER's Asset Pricing Program. In 1992, he and Robert Shiller launched the NBER Working Group on Behavioral Economics, which has served as an important forum for researchers working in this field. He served as co-director of that group until 2016.
Thaler,...
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Oliver Hart is the Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics at Harvard, and a research associate in two NBER programs—Corporate Finance and Law and Economics. He has been an NBER affiliate since 1990. Bengt Holmström is the Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics at MIT, and a research associate in the NBER Corporate Finance program, which he joined in 1996. Between 1984 and 1986, he was also a research associate in the Labor Studies Program. Both have been...
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Angus Deaton has been engaged with a broad range of NBER research activities and is affiliated with seven NBER research programs: Aging, Children, Development, Economic Fluctuations and Growth, Education, Health Care, and Public Economics.
Deaton, a research associate at the NBER for the past three decades, has been awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare
"To design economic policy that promotes...
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Lars Hansen is the David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He is a research associate in the NBER's Asset Pricing (AP) and Economic Fluctuations and Growth (EFG) programs. Robert Shiller is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, a research associate in the NBER's AP, EFG, and Monetary Economics programs, and the co-director of the NBER's Behavioral Economics working group....
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Alvin Roth is currently the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard University. At the end of this year, he will move to emeritus rank at Harvard, and join the Stanford Economics Department. He has been a Research Associate in the NBER's Labor Studies Program since 1999, and he is an active participant in the NBER's Market Design Working Group.
NBER Research Associate Roth shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics with Lloyd...
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Thomas Sargent is the Berkley Professor of Economics and Business at New York University, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a Research Associate in the NBER's Economic Fluctuations and Growth (EFG) Program. He has been an NBER Research Associate since 1970, with the exception of a brief interruption between 1973 and 1978. Christopher Sims is the Harold H. Helm '20 Professor of Economics and Banking at Princeton University and a Research...
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NBER Research Associates Peter A. Diamond of MIT and Dale T. Mortensen of Northwestern University shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics with Christopher Pissarides of the London School of Economics.
The award citation prepared by the Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences highlighted the three researchers' analysis of "markets with search frictions." Their research has found broad application in the study of markets for labor, housing, and many...
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Paul Krugman has been affiliated with the NBER since 1979 and is a member of the Programs on International Trade and Investment and International Finance and Macroeconomics.
Krugman of Princeton University won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. The Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences summarized his contributions as "deepen[ing] our understanding of the determinants of trade and the location of economic activity. His seminal papers ......
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Edward Prescott of the University of Arizona has been affiliated with the NBER since 1988. He is a member of the Program on Economic Fluctuations and Growth. Finn Kydland, who is now at the University of California, Santa Barbara, became an affiliate of NBER in 2008. He is a member of the Program on Economic Fluctuations and Growth.
Prescott and Kydland shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics. They were awarded the prize for...
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Robert Engle has been affiliated with the NBER since 1987 and is a member of the Program on Asset Pricing.
NBER Research Associate Robert F. Engle of New York University's Stern School of Business will share the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics with Clive W. J. Granger. He and Granger were awarded the prize for their development of statistical techniques used to measure investment risk and to track economic trends.
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Joseph Stiglitz has been affiliated with the NBER since 1978 and is a member of the Programs in Public Economics and Economic Fluctuations and Growth. George Akerlof was elected to the NBER's Board of Directors in 1996, representing the University of California, Berkeley. He had earlier been an NBER Research Associate.
NBER Research Associate Stiglitz of Columbia University, NBER Director George A. Akerlof of the University of California, Berkeley, and former...
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NBER Research Associates James J. Heckman of the University of Chicago and Daniel L. McFadden of the University of California, Berkeley, won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Heckman, was awarded the prize for his pioneering work in accounting for unknown factors affecting statistical samples. Much of his work has been applied to understanding how early life events contribute to individuals' later earnings potential and economic status.
McFadden, was cited...
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Robert C. Merton, a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on Asset Pricing and professor of economics at Harvard Business School, and Myron S. Scholes, a professor emeritus at Stanford Business School and a former NBER Research Associate, won the Nobel Prize in Economics this year.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Merton and Scholes for helping to devise a mathematical formula aimed at measuring the worth of an option. "Thousands of...
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Robert E. Lucas, a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on Economic Fluctuations and professor of economics at the University of Chicago, won the Nobel Prize in Economics this year.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Lucas for his "insights into the difficulties of using economic policy to control the economy." They called him "the economist who has had the greatest influence on macroeconomic research since 1970."
Lucas is the...
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NBER Research Associate Robert W. Fogel and former NBER Board member Douglass C. North won 1993 Nobel Prize in economics for their research in economic history.
Fogel was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering research in the application of economic models and statistical methods to historical questions. His work has been, and continues to be, distinguished by startlingly new findings that often overturn conventional knowledge. In early work, Fogel explored...
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Gary S. Becker, a professor at the University of Chicago who was an NBER associate from 1957 to 1979, won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economics. The award cited his work on such concerns as investment in human capital, family behavior, crime, and discrimination. During his tenure with the Bureau, Becker conducted much of the research for which he won his prize. His Bureau books include Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment (1974), edited with William...
More NBER Nobel Prize Winners; Researchers and Board Members
Theodore Schultz, 1979
