We know that Jews have won a disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes — more than 20% — for a group that represents 0.2 per cent of the world's population. But the most striking disproportion is in the field of economics. The first Nobel Prize in economics was awarded in 1969. The most recent winner, in 2017, was Richard Thaler. In total there have been 79 laureates –of whom 29 were Jews (more than 36%).
Among famous Jewish economists, one of the first was David Ricardo, the inventor of the theory of comparative advantage, which Paul Samuelson called the only true and non-obvious theory in the social sciences. Then there was John von Neumann, inventor of game theory (which was creatively enlarged by Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann). Milton Friedman developed monetary economics, Kenneth Arrow welfare economics, and Joe Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs pioneered work on development economics. Daniel Kahneman and the late Amos Tversky created the field of behavioral economics. Garry Becker applied economic analysis to other areas of decision making; Richard Posner led groundbreaking work on the interplay of economics and law. To these we must add other outstanding figures in economic and financial policy: Larry Summers, Alan Greenspan, Sir James Wolfensohn, Janet Yellen, Stanley Fischer, etc.
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