Simply Facts

Unlike the original Nobel Prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Medicine, Literature and Peace), established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel at the end of the nineteenth century, the economics prize was established by the Swedish central bank (Sveriges Riksbank) in 1968 and is thus officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Members of the Nobel family are known to have criticized the Swedish central bank for giving prizes to free-market economists of whom their ancestor would have disapproved.

If an unemployed person stops looking for work, the unemployment will decline. Conversely, if you successfully motivate people to start looking for work, the unemployment will rise.

If a firm develops a new technology and starts selling the same product in the same quantity but cheaper, GDP will fall and GDP per capita will fall.