2018 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to William D. Nordhaus and Paul M. Romer. The prize was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 1 October 2018.

The citation

Half of the prize goes to William D. Nordhaus "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis". Half of the prize goes to Paul M. Romer "for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis".

The laureates

William D. Nordhaus was born in 1941 in Albuquerque, the United States, and is affiliated with Yale University, New Haven. Paul M. Romer was born in 1955 in Denver, the United States, and is affiliated with NYU Stern School of Business, New York.

Why it matters

Nordhaus built models showing how the economy and the climate interact, and Romer showed how ideas and innovation drive long-term growth.

The prize

The prize is worth 9 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895. Strictly, this award is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was established by the Swedish central bank in 1968, but is presented alongside the Nobel Prizes.