by Mark Thirlwell
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14 October 2008 10:29AM
Paul Krugman has won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on trade and economic geography. And yes, for any pedants out there, I know technically it’s ‘The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008’, not that the distinction really matters.
For what it’s worth, I think the award is well-deserved. Krugman has long been one of my favourite economists (at the moment I am enjoying re-reading his short book, The Return of Depression Economics.) Still, if this story in the Guardian is correct, I can’t help but feel a small pang of disappointment. Wouldn’t it have been just a little bit funny if the award had gone to Eugene Fama, father of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, in the year of the world’s biggest financial disaster since the 1930s? I somehow feel a golden opportunity has been missed...
