The Nobel committee paired Hayek and Myrdal partly as a joke and backlog-clearing.

Evidence

The background for the Hayek-Myrdal prize was that the committee was eager to ‘finish’ the backlog as soon as possible, which resulted in a number of shared prizes during the seventies. That specific prize reflected perhaps, to some extent, also Erik Lundberg’s sense of humor! But more seriously, both H. and M. were pioneers in aggregate analysis of output fluctuation by the concepts of aggregate saving and aggregate investment. Both later turned to broader issues of the relations between institutions, economic mechanisms, and political processes. The fact that they came up with contrary policy prescriptions was not regarded by the committee as an obstacle for the prize. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 519

Categorization

• QUESTION: How did the committee reconcile giving ‘contrary policy prescriptions’ equal laurels — and did Myrdal’s remorse later feed the prize committee’s reconstitution after 1994?
• XREF: connects to: Hayek abandoned economic theory for philosophy after Myrdal and Keynesians demolished his monetary work. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 515; The 1974 Nobel pairing hid a neoliberal project to legitimize the Mont Pèlerin Society — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 525

Broader Connections

• The 1974 Nobel pairing hid a neoliberal project to legitimize the Mont Pèlerin Society #complicates (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 525