Roger W. Spencer - Lives of the Laureates: Thirty-Two Nobel Economists

Edited by Roger W. Spencer and David A. Macpherson

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

1986, 1990, 1995, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Spencer, Roger W., editor. | Macpherson, David A., 1960- editor.

Title: Lives of the laureates : thirty-two Nobel economists / edited by Roger W. Spencer and David A. Macpherson.

Description: Seventh edition. | Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019027552 | ISBN 9780262043779 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Economists--Biography. | Nobel Prize winners--Biography. | Nobel Prizes.

Classification: LCC HB76 .L58 2020 | DDC 330.092/2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027552

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This book consists of autobiographical accounts of the careers of thirty-two people who have three qualities in common. First, they are all economists. Second, each of them has been awarded the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science. Third, each traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to deliver his story in person at Trinity University.

The Nobel Prize in Economics was not created by Alfred Nobel himself. In 1901 his will established prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature, and peace. He wished to reward specific achievements rather than outstanding persons. In the case of the natural sciences, the awards were to be given for discoveries, inventions, and improvements. In 1968 the Central Bank of Sweden, in connection with its tercentenary celebration, initiated a new award, the Central Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel. This prize was to be granted in conformity with the standards that governed the awarding of the original Nobel Prizes. According to the rules established by the Central Bank of Sweden, the prize shall be awarded annually to a person who has carried out a work in economic science of the eminent significance expressed in the will of Alfred Nobel.

The idea for a series of autobiographical lectures by Nobel laureates in economics was that of William Breit, who spent a good part of his academic career studying, teaching, and writing about the lives and ideas of leading contemporary U.S. economists. His abiding interest in the relationship between biography and the creative process led naturally to the thought of providing a forum in which outstanding economists would express in their own words, in any way that seemed congenial, a personal memoir under the general rubric my evolution as an economist. At the very least, such a forum would preserve part of the rich record of accomplishment that helped to shape the direction and character of economic science in the postWorld War II era. But the larger purpose was to provide important source material for a theory of scientific discovery.

Little is known about the process by which original ideas germinate and are eventually accepted by ones peers. To what extent is the substance of scientific work in social science a reflection of the lives of those who produced it? What is the role of influential teachers and colleagues? To what degree are the problems to which these thinkers addressed themselves a result of their own backgrounds, and of the economic and social problems of their times? What forces were most responsible for leading them to their insights? In short, what is it that enables an individual to discover something that seizes and holds the attention of a large segment of a scientific community? To help answer such questions was the major rationale behind the series.

But whom should we invite? It was clear that budgetary and time constraints would limit the number of invitations, and so the roster was restricted in the following ways: only economists who served on the faculties of U.S. universities at the time the Nobel Prize was awarded would be included, and the roster would represent as many different facets of economics in terms of types of contributions, specific areas, methods of analysis, and ideological differences as possible. In 1983, when the program was being planned, there were twelve Nobel Prize winners who met the first criterion, though one was too ill to travel. A difficult winnowing process in accordance with the second criterion narrowed the final list to eight. Only one invitee declined to participate.

The autobiographical lectures that made up the first edition of this volume were presented at Trinity University during the 198485 year. The success of the project encouraged then Trinity University president Ronald Calgaard to allow the series to continue.

During the three years immediately following the end of the original series, a trio of Americans was honored with the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science: Franco Modigliani of MIT in 1985, James M. Buchanan of George Mason University in 1986, and Robert M. Solow of MIT in 1987. Each of them accepted the request to present a lecture in which he would chart the route that had led him to the highest accolade a scholar can receive. These lectures were included in the second edition of Lives of the Laureates, published in 1990.

As more Nobel Prize winners accepted the invitation to speak at Trinity, a third edition was published in 1995, a fourth in 2004, a fifth in 2009, and a sixth in 2014. The seventh edition of Lives of the Laureates includes six new lectures, by Roger B. Myerson (co-recipient in 2007), Thomas J. Sargent (co-recipient in 2011), Amartya Sen (1998), A. Michael Spence (co-recipient in 2001), Christopher A. Sims (co-recipient in 2011), and Alvin E. Roth (co-recipient in 2012).

To make room in a single volume for all participating Nobelists, the publisher developed a new concept that involved additional editing of most earlier contributions to permit the return of four lectures that had been dropped and the incorporation of six new chapters. The editing was accomplished with a view toward keeping the essential messages of the earlier Nobelists while maintaining their singular, unique voice. For many of the laureates, the assignment has been a difficult one. There is an understandable reluctance to give a public talk about ones own intellectual contributions. As one of the invitees put it, I do not know that I could keep it between the Scylla of false modesty and the Charybdis of boastfulness, and I am afraid I would find the whole business rather stressful. Moreover, most of their work in its professional formulation was technical in nature, difficult to understand by those not trained as economists. Yet each was being asked to make his contribution accessible to a lay audience at a public lecture open to the whole community. This provided greater difficulties for some than for others. Paul A. Samuelsons and Kenneth J. Arrows scientific contributions are largely in the domain of mathematical economics. Lawrence R. Klein, among others, made heavy use of statistical techniques and econometrics. All the Nobel economists express themselves in the technical vocabulary of their discipline.