Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Name That Economist

One of the brightest up-and-coming young economists, this scholar made headlines when she published a paper that contradicted an earlier published paper that she had written based on her dissertation. The daughter of two economists, she was the subject of several research papers on account of her unusual bedtime behavior while a two-year old.

Who is she and what topic caused her to write a paper contradicting her dissertation work? Also, what was her unusual bedtime behavior?

Congratulations to Yang Yang for correctly identifying Emily Oster as the mystery economist. Read more about Dr. Oster here. See her in action here.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Forecasting the Nobel Prize in Economics

The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel (aka the Nobel Prize in Economics) will be announced on Monday, October 12, 2009. Of the 62 men who have won the award outright or shared in it since the prize began in 1969 (no woman has yet to win it), 42 have been Americans. The leading university homes of the winners include the University of Chicago (10), followed by Columbia (4), Harvard (4), University of California-Berkeley (4), and Cambridge University, England (4).

Now, let's see how well you can forecast. Who will be awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics? Your educated guess must be posted as a comment to this post before the Nobel Prize announcement is made. In the event that more than one person submits identical guesses, the earlier timestamp of the comment will determine the winner. The bonus points will be added to the winner's next exam score following the Nobel announcement on October 12.

No one guessed the 2009 winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Congratulations to Elinor Ostrom (Indiana University) and Oliver Williamson (Cal-Berkeley) on this year's award