Economist wins Nobel Peace Prize

by on October 13, 2006 at 8:09 am in Current Affairs | Permalink

The winner is Muhammad Yunus, economist (!) and founder of the micro-credit movement, along with his Grameen Bank.  Here is the story.  Here is his Wikipedia entry.  Here is my New York Times column on micro-credit.  Here is the best piece on what we know about micro-credit.  Here is Yunus’s book on micro-credit, which also serves as a memoir and autobiography.  It is a captivating and well-written story.

This is a wonderful choice.  The funny thing is, they never would have considered this guy for the Economics prize. 

I would write more, but a) read my column, and b) the Topalov-Kramnik sudden death speed chess tiebreakers are being played this morning, watch them live here.  Susan Polgar offers running commentary here.

17 comments

Shruti Rajagopalan October 13, 2006 at 8:40 am

It is great to see that the Nobel Prize for Peace will now also be associated with prosperity, trade and entrepreneurship! I am not sure if some of the past Economics winners have symbolised free trade, entrepreurship or prosperity.

Even more heartening that he won when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president of Indonesia, Bono, Rudolph Giuliani, Colin Powell and Oprah Winfrey were in the running apparenetly!

eriks October 13, 2006 at 10:55 am

It’s a wonderful choice and Yunus’ book really is amazing. As soon as I finished I went to his website and applied for any jobs I could find.

Tyler, what is your opinion on the fact that he would never be considered for the economics Nobel?

Mr. Econotarian October 13, 2006 at 12:37 pm

The main thing to remember about microcredit is that IT WOULDN’T BE NEEDED IF GOVERNMENTS HAD REASONABLE ECONOMIC POLICIES, including overly regulated and restricted financial sectors and lack of good title and other private property laws.

I am perplexed how this ended up a peace prize. I do agree that moving cultures away from zero-sum economy mentalities to non-zero-sum economy mentalities probably does reduce conflict, but there are zero-sum cultures in the U.S. who are technically rich by global standards, but remain with high levels of conflict because they are in a zero-sum mentality. People in these cultures get credit card offers in the mail, but it doesn’t change their zero-sum outlook.

dsquared October 13, 2006 at 1:14 pm

Tyler, that “what we know about microcredit” isn’t much more than a Grameen Bank press release. There are a lot of papers on Jonathan Morduch’s website which give a more balanced view (in particular, while boradly supportive of microcredit, they’re much more sceptical about its ability to reach the very poorest, or to work on a financially self-supporting basis).

Sharran Srivatsaa October 13, 2006 at 2:00 pm

I am just glad the got recognized for all that he has done. It takes a lot for an academic to break out of academia and start something that has had such a widespread effect. But I agree with Econotarian on the role of governments… especially if you consider a the bureaucracy of governments in countries like India… everyone wants a piece of the pie and they don’t care if its going to a farmer in a village who is taking a loan to buy a new part for his combine.

JW Tan October 13, 2006 at 2:52 pm

They are trying. But I don’t think the return justifies them deploying that capital. There are far more lucrative activities to pursue.

stomalian October 13, 2006 at 9:24 pm

Pawn-broking helps the poor more, but is not PC.

Jason Briggeman October 14, 2006 at 2:55 am

The 1995 Jeff Tucker piece at Mises hardly boils down to “why aren’t Western banks doing it?”

anonymous October 14, 2006 at 10:33 am

After reading the Jeff Tucker piece, and assuming it’s accurate, I think it’s fair to say that what Grameen Bank accomplishes is well in line with the outcomes of typical Peace Prize winners.

howardl October 15, 2006 at 8:03 am

Recall Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize, but not the Nobel Prize for medicine, even though undoubtedly his worked saved more lives than any winner of the medicine prize.

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