Economists win Nobel for work on climate and growth

(BBC News, 15 Oct 2018) This year's Nobel prize for economics has been awarded to William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for their work on sustainable growth.

The US economists' research focuses on how climate change and technology have affected the economy. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said they had addressed "some of our time's most… pressing questions" on how to achieve sustainable growth.

The duo will receive nine million Swedish krona (£841,000).

Prof Nordhaus, of Yale University, was the first person to create a model that described the interplay between the economy and the climate, the academy said.

Prof Romer, of New York University's Stern School of Business, has shown how economic forces govern the willingness of firms to produce new ideas and innovations.

"Their findings have significantly broadened the scope of economic analysis by constructing models that explain how the market economy interacts with nature and knowledge," the academy said in statement.

It came amid reports that the outspoken economist had clashed with colleagues at the Word Bank over a host of issues, including the organisation's culture and economists' use of grammar.

What these two prize winners have in common is that their research examined the unintended side effects from economic activity and how they affect growth in the long term.

External link

BBC News, : Economists win Nobel for work on climate and growth