IMHO, the correct title should be “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2021”.
Rationale: A prize for economics was not part of Alfred Nobel’s will. This prize was founded in the 1960’s by Riksbanken (The Central Bank of Sweden).
This seems incredibly nitpicky. We wouldn't say a Harvard degree in physics is not a real Harvard degree just because it wasn't offered by John Harvard himself.
So headlines calling it a 'Nobel' match the Nobel Foundation's usage in similar summary/header contexts.
The prize in Physics is the "Nobel Prize if Physics", and so are the other ones. The difference is intentional.
A self-respecting discipline starts its own prize instead of buying legitimacy.
Computer Science has the Turing Award, not the ACM Prize in Computer Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Thus, it's more like the comment you were replying to — creating a new degree program within Harvard University that John Harvard didn't authorize.
Your analogy would be more accurate if this were not in fact created, endorsed, and run by the Nobel Foundation.
https://www.thelocal.se/20211011/trio-share-nobel-prize-for-...
Umm Brookes
Misnaming the econ prize as a "Nobel" prize and placing it's winners on the level of great physicists, chemists etc risks in exacerbating this problem.
Much of the research done by econ memorial prize winners is walked back or proven false later. It isn't hard science. Much of it is politically driven and advice and practitioners are used by politicians to justify certain actions, many of them dysfunctional or corrupt.
A Nobel-in-Chemistry went to an enthusiastic creator of chlorine gas chemical weapons (Haber). A Nobel-in-Medicine went to the inventor of the lobotomy (Moniz). Another Nobel-in-Medicine was awarded for false research about roundworms-causing-cancer (Fibiger). A Nobel-in-Peace went to the architect of secret carpet bombing that likely killed over 100,000 civilians in a non-combatant country (Kissinger).
The Econ prize's shorter, more modern history has a better record!
> Much of the research done by econ memorial prize winners is walked back or proven false later. It isn't hard science.
This is not just true. Econ price almost always well earned, like now. Maybe there is some, but I can't think anyone who don't deserve it.
(Did you know that the "MacArthur Fellows" – sometimes called "Genius Grants" – were also invented by the board of the MacArthur Foundation after John MacArthur's death?)
The current title ("Nobel Prize for Economics") is simply false. The official name is "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2021", which can be shortened to "Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences".
Note that this is meaningfully and on purpose unlike the Physics or Chemistry prize situation.
What's more, even the current name is controversial, seeing as it misappropriates the Nobel name with the goal of elevating the social status of some economists. Peter Nobel, for one, seems to be furious about it, and it definitely isn't done according to the wishes of Alfred Nobel.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Econom... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_controversies#Econ...
Also see Monocasa's comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28830961