Editor’s Note: This post was inspired by the excellent article 50 People Who Deserve a Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was founded in 1968 by distinguished Swedish bank Sveriges Riksbank and was first awarded in 1969. The Prize in Economics, as the Nobel Foundation calls it, is widely considered the most prestigious award in the field, recognizing “outstanding contributions to the field of economics.”
As you’d expect with such a high profile and distinguished annual award, competition is fierce, and, sadly, not every hardworking economist has gotten the credit that they often deserve. Some critics have even gone as far as suggesting that the committee is biased towards mainstream economics. Yet whatever the case, it must be somewhat deflating to be overlooked and, perhaps, under-appreciated. Read on for 10 economists who haven’t won a Nobel Prize but who really should have.
10. Esther Duflo
French economist and activist Esther Duflo is currently pushing the boundaries of the field with her investigations into poverty and deprivation. Duflo made waves from a young age, and in 2005 was awarded the Best Young French Economist award by Le Cercle des économistes. She also won the John Bates Clark Medal in 2010, before she’d turned 40.
Duflo’s latest book, Poor Economics, which she co-wrote with Abhijit V. Banerjee, has been praised as an innovative investigation into the root causes of poverty. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen described Poor Economics as “a marvelously insightful book by the two outstanding researchers on the real nature of poverty.”
Duflo is also a pioneer when it comes to using randomized field experiments to look at the issues surrounding public policies in the Third World. And, in addition to her fieldwork, the economist is the co-founder and head of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which is a think tank that looks at innovative ways to deal with problems caused by poverty.
9. José Antonio Abreu
Multi-talented Venezuelan economist José Antonio Abreu’s exploits also include stints in politics, activism, education, and music. Abreu graduated from Universidad Católica Andres Bello with a degree in economics and was awarded a PhD in Petroleum Economics in 1961. During this time, Abreu also developed his formidable musical skills, playing piano, organ, and harpsichord.
After receiving the Symphonic Music National Prize in 1967, Abreu decided to use music as a form of education. As a result, he founded El Sistema, an organization that uses the power of music as a teaching tool to benefit children from poorer backgrounds. His efforts paid off, as in 1993 El Sistema won the IMC-UNESCO International Music Award.
Abreu has garnered numerous high-profile honors throughout his long career, including the Polar Music Prize (2009) and the Erasmus Prize (2010). In 2012, he also received an honorary doctorate from the University of London’s Institute of Education for his work in music education and social change.
8. Emily Oster
Emily Oster’s academic work has focused heavily on epidemiology. During her 2007 TED Talk, Oster used the study of incentives to explain the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. She argued that in areas where life expectancy is low, there must be little incentive to take extra precautions against AIDS.
Oster is also well known for her revolutionary work dealing with male to female sex ratios in Asia. In her PhD dissertation, she argued that Hepatitis B is responsible for many of the so-called “missing women” in that part of the world.
Interestingly, Oster got her first taste of scientific research at a very young age. When she was just two years old, she was the subject of a number of academic papers based on her parents’ recordings of her speech when she was alone, which was noticeably more complex than when she spoke to adults. The findings, collectively titled Narratives From The Crib, were published in 1989.
7. Daron Acemoğlu
Turkish-American economist Daron Acemoğlu is one of the most heavily cited and influential economists in the world. This MIT professor has received