BOOK REVIEW OF OFFER AND SODERBERG’S: THE NOBEL FACTOR

This book tells everything that anyone could ever want to know about the Nobel Prize in Economics. It delves into the history and sociology of this award. It gives the background of the behind the scene political machinations undergirding it. It names names, and weighs in on the question of whether there is any underlying bias in making this honor. Its thesis is that this prize has influenced public policy pretty much throughout the world, and does a splendid job in marshaling evidence for this claim. It analyses the political background of most awardees. All of this is good and well. However, in the course of offering the reader this important information, this publication commits a series of errors, some of them quite substantial from an economic point of view; these are heavily criticized in the course of this review.