1974: When Both Nobel Economists Proposed Abolishing the Prize

The Nobel prize in economics was awarded for the sixth time in 1974 (that is, it was first awarded in 196) to Gunnar Myrdal and Friedrich von Hayek “for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena.” Both responded by arguing that the award might better be abolished. Hayek made the case against the prize itself in his speech at the Nobel banquet on December 10, 1974. Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, Now that the Nobel Memorial Prize for economic science has been created, one can only be profoundly grateful for having been selected as one of its joint recipients, and the economists certainly have every reason for being grateful to the Swedish Riksbank for regarding their subject as worthy of this high honour. Yet I must confess that if I had been consulted whether to establish a Nobel Prize in economics, I should have decidedly…