Alleged misuse of the Nobel name Critics argue that the prestige of the Prize in Economic Sciences derives in part from its association with the Nobel Prizes. Among them is
Peter Nobel, a great-grandnephew of
Alfred Nobel and a Swedish human rights lawyer. Nobel accuses the awarding institution of misusing his family's name, and states that no member of the Nobel family has ever had the intention of establishing a prize in economics. He explained that "Nobel despised people who cared more about profits than society's well-being", saying that "There is nothing to indicate that he would have wanted such a prize", and that the association with the Nobel prizes is "a PR coup by economists to improve their reputation".
Undue authority In his speech at the 1974 Nobel Prize banquet,
Friedrich Hayek stated that had he been consulted on the establishment of a Nobel Prize in economics, he would have "decidedly advised against it", primarily because "The Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority which in economics no man ought to possess. This does not matter in the
natural sciences. Here the influence exercised by an individual is chiefly an influence on his fellow experts; and they will soon cut him down to size if he exceeds his competence. But the influence of the economist that mainly matters is an influence over laymen: politicians, journalists, civil servants and the public generally." •
Milton Friedman – was awarded the 1976 prize in part for his work on
monetarism. Awarding the prize to Friedman caused international protests. Friedman was accused of supporting the military dictatorship in
Chile because of the relation of
economists of the University of Chicago to Pinochet, and a controversial six-day trip he took to Chile during March 1975 (less than two years after the coup that ended with
the suicide of its democratically elected President Salvador Allende). Friedman himself answered that he never was an adviser to the dictatorship, but only gave some lectures and seminars on inflation and met with officials, including
Augusto Pinochet, in Chile. Four Nobel Prize laureates
George Wald,
Linus Pauling,
David Baltimore and
Salvador Luriawrote letters in October 1976 to
The New York Times protesting Friedman's award. •
Robert Aumann – 2005 prize to
Robert Aumann was criticized by the European press for his alleged use of game theory to justify his stance against the dismantling of
illegal Israeli settlements in occupied
Palestine. •
Eugene Fama and
Robert Shiller at the same time – 2013 prize to
Eugene Fama,
Robert Shiller and
Lars Peter Hansen "for their empirical analysis of asset prices" was seen as contradictory because
Eugene Fama's work is in support of
efficient-market hypothesis meanwhile
Robert Shiller's work is against the
efficient-market hypothesis focusing in investors' irrational behavior.
Expansion of the scope The 1994 prize to mathematician
John Forbes Nash caused controversy within the selection committee. This resulted in a change to the rules governing the committee during 1994: the prize's scope was redefined as one of social sciences, and Prize Committee members were limited to serve for three years. ==Alternative names==