Some of Nobel’s descendents have tried to have his nmae removed from the prize because, they say, Nobel was uninterested to contemptuous of social sciences.

Martinned: @ArthurKirkland: That sounds more like a list of things he hasn’t done. I haven’t done any of those things, either. Can I get a Nobel Prize, too?Back on topic: Why don’t law people care about a law & economics Nobel Prize?

In fairness, Martinned, Obama was in a position to do this things and did not. You, on the other hand, were not–unless things I do not know about are going on in the Netherlands.

Everyone knows that Obama should have won the Nobel in Economic Science.

He should have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Look at the chemistry he had with the American electorate.

The Economics Nobel has a similar position in the field of economics that the hard science Nobels have in their field: Generally, there is very little doubt that the person that got it should have gotten it. (Williamson was already on everybody’s short list since the early 90s, at least.) Also, there is no doubt that it is the most prestigious award out there. With those two ingredients, and given that the prize is in honour of Alfred Nobel, I don’t see why we shouldn’t call it “Nobel Prize” like the others.

Yglesias: “… Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom share the Swedish Central Bank Prize for Economics in Honor of Alfred Nobel. Alex Tabarrok explains Ostrom’s work and Paul Krugman tells you about Williamson. Osrtom is the first woman to win the prize and is also noteworthy for being a political scientist rather than an economist. Robert Shiller tells The New York Times that this is “part of the merging of the social sciences.”

Meanwhile, I would note that the Sveriges Riksbank itself deserves some kind of prize for ability to get people to call its economics prize “the Nobel Prize.” Real Nobel Prizes are prizes awarded according to the endowment that Alfred Nobel set up. There are, of course, lots of other prizes in the world set up by other people. One such prize is this economics prize that the Swedish Central Bank decided to give out. But only the Swedish Central Bank prize has succeeded in convincing people that it should be referred to as a “Nobel Prize” despite having no connection to Alfred Nobel or his prizes. Impressive work and yet another example of the impressively high-performing public sector institutions that make the Swedish social model work.”

So, the committee who gave this award, did not give an award to Obama.

Back on topic: Why don’t law people care about a law & economics Nobel Prize?

I wouldn’t have awarded a Nobel Prize for it, but Obama has avoided attacking the wrong country, has refrained from torturing prisoners, has not paid sketchy bounties to sketchy people for prisoners to be held in endless detention, and generally has constituted a welcome signal to the world that the United States will no longer shoot indiscriminately first and ignore the relevant questions later. He does not appear to mistake Castro for the most important threat to world peace, has defused legitimate concerns that the United States would attack Iran, and appears to be devoting sensible thought to the problem of how to address the nightmare generated by eight years of drift in Afghanistan. I believe it is wrong to underestimate the benefits associated with dispelling the world’s understandable sense that the United States had become a misguided lone wolf, although the credit is deserved by the American electorate at least as much as by the man it elected to resolve the “Mission Accomplished” problem.

insurance: This is a total rip off! Everyone knows that Obama should have won the Nobel in Economic Science. Obviously the Nobel committee did not realize that Obama should win in every category. He has been just as successful in economics as he has in peace…I wonder is racism is involved?

Well, technically he has spent quite a bit of time so far trying to sort out the economy. What he has done for peace so far, I’m not entirely sure.