THE TEACHING ECONOMIST - William A. McEachern

Issue 14, Fall 1997

William A. McEachern, Editor

Odds and Ends

For the second year in a row, days before the October 14th announcement of the 1997 Nobel Laureates in Economic Science, I surveyed the Internet site (at Technical University Berlin) that was holding a mock poll for the prize. To prevent ballot stuffing, only one vote was allowed from each computer. Last year 123 votes were spread over 40 different nominees; this year, 184 votes were spread over 60 different nominees. Amartya Sen was again the top vote-getter with 34 (up from 20 votes in 1996). Clive Granger was a distant second with 15 votes (he came in third last year with 15 votes). Vernon Smith was third with 12 votes, and William Boumal fourth with 10. Nobody else was in double digits. Curiously, Joe Stiglitz, who finished a close second last year with 18 votes, dropped to a tie for eighth this year with only 5 votes (out of sight, out of mind-since last year, he stepped down as head of the President's Council of Economic Advisers). Nobody else was in double digits; 34 received a single vote. No women received votes. A few days after I recorded the above totals, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science announced that Robert C. Merton of Harvard and Myron S. Scholes of Stanford would split the 1997 $1 million Nobel Prize for their work in the valuation of stock options. Neither had received a single vote in the mock election. For the second year in a row, the Internet poll failed to cast even one vote for the eventual winners. Incidentally, during each year of the 1980s, the Nobel Prize went to a single economist, but in five of eight years so far in the 1990s, the award has gone to more than one recipient.

In America's Best Colleges: 1998, the U.S. News annual volume, 90% of the 1,330 four-year schools surveyed accept more than half of all applicants. This year's report includes new information about student indebtedness upon graduation. Graduates of Howard University were deepest in debt; 40% of graduates were in debt averaging $32,401. Graduates of the College of William and Mary had accumulated the least debt; 45% of graduates were in debt averaging only $1,550. Not counted are loans taken out by parents.

"The great artist is the simplifier."
-Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss philosopher)

"The wise learn many things from their foes."
-Aristophanes

"To know truly is to know by cause."
-Francis Bacon

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