Nobel Prize in Economics Announcement Looms

STOCKHOLM -- The Nobel memorial prize in economics, the last award in this year's cycle, is set to be announced Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Last year, three researchers who study business innovation were awarded the prize for explaining how new products and inventions promote economic growth and human welfare, even as they leave older companies behind. The economics prize was established in 1968 by the central bank as a memorial to Alfred Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five original Nobel Prizes. Nobel honors in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace were announced last week.

While Nobel purists note that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, it is always presented alongside the other awards on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor, approximately $1.2 million, regardless of whether it is awarded to an individual, a small group, or an organization.