The Nobel Prize:William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, awarded the 2018 Prize in Economic Sciences, have designed methods that address some of our time’s most fundamental and pressing issues: long-term sustainable growth in the global economy and the welfare of the world’s population.
The Nobel Prize:Human activity has contributed to the rapid increases in average global temperatures over the last 100 years. 2018 Economic Sciences laureate William Nordhaus’ research shows how economic activity interacts with basic chemistry and physics to produce climate change.
The Nobel Prize:Nordhaus was the first person to create a quantitative model that describes the global interplay between the economy and the climate. His model is now widespread and is used to examine the consequences of climate policy interventions, for example carbon taxes.
The Nobel Prize:This year’s Economic Sciences laureate Paul Romer’s research shows how the accumulation of ideas sustains long-term economic growth. He demonstrated how economic forces govern the willingness of firms to produce new ideas and innovations.
The Nobel Prize:Romer’s research laid the foundation of what is now called endogenous growth theory. The theory has generated vast amounts of new research into the regulations and policies that encourage new ideas and long-term prosperity.
The Nobel Prize:Laureate William Nordhaus’ research shows that the most efficient remedy for problems caused by greenhouse gas emissions is a global scheme of carbon taxes uniformly imposed on all countries. The diagram shows CO2 emissions for four climate policies according to his simulations.