Bengt Holmström, one of the 2016 Nobel Economics Prize winners. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT
The 2017 Nobel Prize announcement season comes to an end with the Economics Prize.
11:40 Five minutes to go…
With five minutes to go until the announcement, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is packed with journalists from across the globe.
The majority of past winners have come from the US, and only two Swedes have ever received the honour. The last Swede to be made a Nobel Laureate in the economics field was Bertil Ohlin back in 1977, and the only other person from the nation to manage the same is Gunnar Myrdal in 1974 – though last year’s winners included a Swedish-speaking Finn.
Could that be about to change? We’re about to find out.
11:35 Watch the announcement live
We’ll bring you the name of the winner(s) as soon as the announcement is made, but you can also watch the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics announcement streamed live using the player below. Swedes tend to be pretty punctual, so keep your eyes peeled as we approach 11:45.
11:30 Past winners
Since it was first set up in 1969, the Nobel Prize in Economics has been given out 48 times to a total of 78 laureates. You can explore the full list and find out about the winners’ work here, but here are a few stats to get you started.
The youngest Laureate was Kenneth J. Arrow in 1972, while the oldest was Leonid Hurwicz who was 90 when he won in 2007. The average age of Laureates at the time of winning is 67 years old.
As we mentioned earlier, just one woman has been awarded the prize.
We’ll find out in 15 minutes if today’s winners beat any of those records…
11:17 Getting ready to vote
Pictured below are members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences getting ready to vote for this year’s winners.
So how exactly are the winners chosen?
The Economics Prize Committee sends out invitations to “thousands of scientists, members of academies and university professors in numerous countries” each year to ask for nominations. Further nominations may be made by Academy members and former Nobel laureates.
Then, the committee and a group of “specially appointed experts” look into all the nominations carefully, before taking the final vote. More information on the tough selection process can be found on the Academy’s website.
The venue for the Economics Prize announcement is the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Local Sweden’s editor, Emma Löfgren, is there now, while our assistant editor Catherine Edwards is taking over this live blog. Get in touch on Twitter with any fun Nobel Prize facts, thoughts, or speculation.
As well as being the name of the building, the Academy is the scientific organization responsible for awarding the prize, and its motto is: To promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society.
10.55 This time last year…
If you missed last year’s prize, here’s a quick recap: Helsinki-born Bengt Holmström of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and London-born Oliver Hart of Harvard University took the honour thanks to their contributions to contract theory.
Today’s award is unique in that it is the only Nobel Prize not included in Alfred Nobel’s last will and testament. It was established by Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, in 1968 to honour the memory of Nobel.
Based on a donation from the bank on its 300th anniversary in 1968 to the Nobel Foundation, the prize has been awarded to 78 Laureates since 1969, so it now has a strong history in its own right.
Only one woman has been awarded the Prize in Economic Sciences so far however – Elinor Ostrom in 2009. Could that change this year?
The Local Sweden’s editor Emma Löfgren is off to the announcement at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and will be live tweeting all the build-up on the ground ahead of the big reveal at 11.45, while this live blog is managed by Lee Roden.
If you haven’t already, make sure to catch up on all the excitement from the first week of 2017’s prize season, where The Local covered the Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Peace and Literature prizes in extensive detail, and tried to make everything just that little bit more understandable with the help of experts in each field.
