Hayek opposed the economics Nobel Prize as an excessive grant of individual authority.

Evidence

Yet I must confess that if I had been consulted whether to establish a Nobel Prize in economics, I should have decidedly advised against it. One reason was that I feared that such a prize, as I believe is true of the activities of some of the great scientific foundations, would tend to accentuate the swings of scientific fashion. This apprehension the selection committee has brilliantly refuted by awarding the prize to one whose views are as unfashionable as mine are. I do not yet feel equally reassured concerning my second cause of apprehension. It is that the Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority which in economics no man ought to possess. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 523

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates Hayek’s own stated rationale for opposing the prize — a useful primary-source datum for the broader argument.
• XREF: connects to: The ersatz Nobel Prize steered economics toward one ideological species while denying that intent — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 478; The Nobel Prize initially marginalized Friedman but later legitimized the MPS school — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 514; The Riksbank bullied Sweden into legislating an ersatz Nobel Prize. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 469

Broader Connections

• The ersatz Nobel Prize steered economics toward one ideological species while denying that intent #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 478
• The Riksbank bullied Sweden into legislating an ersatz Nobel Prize. #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 469
• The Nobel Prize initially marginalized Friedman but later legitimized the MPS school #complicates (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 514