The Economics Nobel originated as a central bank’s improvised prestige play.

Evidence

While the bank publicly explored the subsidized publication of a number of commissioned books on economics, Åsbrink began to sound out some key players behind the scenes about the possibility of a dedicated Nobel Prize for Economics organized and funded by the bank. No other political actor at the time thought that such a prize was anything other than a delusion, not to mention a remotely sensible way to spend the revenues accruing to the bank from its restrictive monetary policies. The real Nobels, after all, had been the consequence of a private bequest. Lindbeck, then a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics and a formal advisor to the bank since 1964, reports that he was approached by Åsbrink in 1967 or early 1968 to evaluate the possibility of such a prize funded entirely by the Riksbank out of the surplus. Because it might be unseemly for the chairman of the Riksbank to go skulking about surreptitiously laying the groundwork for such a prize with absolutely no prior political mandate whatsoever, Lindbeck was enlisted as a go-between for Åsbrink and the Nobel Foundation. Lindbeck consulted the chair of the Nobel Foundation, Nils Ståhle, and its financial advisor, Jacob Wallenberg; but the latter felt that adding another Nobel was out of the question. After intense negotiations, a ‘compromise’ was reached: the bank could fund a ‘different’ prize that nevertheless looked suspiciously like a real Nobel; that is, a parallel ersatz prize; a “Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” It was just a slight inconvenience that Alfred Nobel would be spinning in his grave. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 465

Categorization

• CANDY: The origin of the Economics Nobel as a sneaky ersatz prize is a great cocktail-party fact: the real Nobel Foundation resisted, so the Riksbank improvised a lookalike.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how did this ersatz Nobel influence the legitimacy and ideological tilt of the economics profession after 1969?
• XREF: connects to: The economics Nobel transformed economic capital into symbolic capital inflating the discipline’s public power — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 459; The Nobel economics prize was created to win public deference for central bank independence — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 476; The economics Nobel is a feigned imitation of the genuine award. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 470 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The Nobel economics prize was created to win public deference for central bank independence #expands (0.95) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 476
• The Nobel economics prize was created to manufacture science-like prestige, not to honor it #expands (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 475
• The economics Nobel is a feigned imitation of the genuine award. #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 470