Nobel in economics goes to David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens.

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

David Card, Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens have made a career of studying unintended experiments — Mr. Card in labor economics and Mr. Angrist and Mr. Imbens in analyzing cause and effect. On Monday, their work earned them the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. All three winners are based in the United States. Mr. Card, who was born in Canada, works at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Angrist, born in the United States, is at M.I.T. and Mr. Imbens, born in the Netherlands, is at Stanford University.

“Uncovering causal relationships is a major challenge,” said Peter Fredriksson, chairman of the prize committee. “Sometimes, nature, or policy changes, provide situations that resemble randomized experiments. This year’s laureates have shown that such natural experiments help answer important questions for society.”

Mr. Card’s work has challenged conventional wisdom in labor economics — including the idea that higher minimum wages led to lower employment. He was a co-author of influential studies on that topic with Alan Krueger, who died in 2019, including one that used the natural geographical border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania to test the effect of a minimum wage change. Comparing outcomes between the states, the research found that employment at fast food restaurants was not affected by an increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage.

Mr. Angrist and Mr. Imbens have contributed to the way researchers think about and analyze natural experiments. Two American economists affiliated with Stanford University, Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson, won the 2020 Nobel in economics for improvements to auction theory. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of M.I.T. and Michael Kremer of Harvard won in 2019 for their experiment-based research in development economics. The award, formally called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, has been given 53 times since 1969.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/business/nobel-economics-prize-david-card-joshua-angrist-guido-imbens.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

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Congrats! Interesting study done by one of them as a co-author, that had a "local connection" to me too.

Link to tweet

TEXT

The Nobel Prize
@NobelPrize
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2021 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded with one half to David Card and the other half jointly to Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens.

#NobelPrize
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5:59 AM · Oct 11, 2021

[Alexander Of Assyria]

1. Capitalists proven liars again by actual facts...this Nobel winning result is remarkable:

“Mr. Card’s work has challenged conventional wisdom in labor economics — including the idea that higher minimum wages led to lower employment. He was a co-author of influential studies on that topic with Alan Krueger, who died in 2019, including one that used the natural geographical border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania to test the effect of a minimum wage change. Comparing outcomes between the states, the research found that employment at fast food restaurants was not affected by an increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage.”

So now what’s the holdup?

[Hortensis]

3. Conservative economics, not capitalists. Many capitalists are liberals

and/or smart enough to realize that a healthy prosperous populace and happy labor force are very good for business.

Those who can't tell their friends/allies from their enemies are enormous assets to those enemies and dangers to their own cause.

"What was good for the country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.” ~ GM’s CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson during his senate hearings when proudly progressive conservative President Eisenhower nominated Wilson to be his Secretary of Defense

[Alexander Of Assyria]

4. True enough, although can't help but notice progressive capitalists are the exception.

The fascist capitalists…were hand in hand with fascist politicians since Mussolini cast the modern age mold.

[Hortensis]

5. Wouldn't be too sure. Agriculture without subsidies? Healthcare

without very sustantial government funding? On and on through every industry without exception. The supposedly hard-core libertarian Kochs routinely pocket their so-called principles when progressive programs make money available.

Well, whatever some titans of industry might have imagined, the council of businessmen Mussolini replaced elected legislators with was merely an advisory board at best. And businessmen who thought they could remain independent and powerful discovered that was very dangerous for their health. Fascism's about extreme control and turning everything to the service of the state, and only one Il Duce.

He reminds me of this (because it's short enough to remember):

"Liberalism is the individual. Fascism is the state."

Mussolini knew.

[Sympthsical]

2. Natural experiments are fascinating, especially with Covid

As horrible as it is to say, psychologists and sociologists have been pretty excited about the kinds of data and experiments they've been able to perform during Covid. Not that they're happy with the virus, just that the circumstances give them a lot of opportunities to study human behavior on a massive scale that you can't necessarily get in controlled experiments.

We've seen articles and studies throughout the pandemic from various places. But I think, in a year or two, you're going to see an explosion of books and peer-reviewed studies in this area about what all this has done to us socially and psychologically. The full depths are not even close to known.