Winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics

Written and fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Updated: Oct. 13, 2026

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden, and it was first awarded in 1969, more than 60 years after the distribution of the first Nobel Prizes. Although not technically a Nobel Prize, the Prize in Economic Sciences is identified with the award; its winners are announced with the Nobel Prize recipients, and it is presented at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. It is conferred by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

The table provides a list of winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Nobel Prize winners by category (economics)*
year	name	country**	achievement
1969	Ragnar Frisch	Norway	work in econometrics
1969	Jan Tinbergen	Netherlands	work in econometrics
1970	Paul Samuelson	U.S.	work in scientific analysis of economic theory
1971	Simon Kuznets	U.S.	extensive research on the economic growth of nations
1972	Kenneth J. Arrow	U.S.	contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory
1972	Sir John R. Hicks	U.K.	contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory
1973	Wassily Leontief	U.S.	input-output analysis
1974	F.A. Hayek	U.K.	pioneering analysis of the interdependence of economic, social, and institutional phenomena
1974	Gunnar Myrdal	Sweden	pioneering analysis of the interdependence of economic, social, and institutional phenomena
1975	Leonid Vitalyevich Kantorovich	U.S.S.R.	contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources
1975	Tjalling C. Koopmans	U.S.	contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources
1976	Milton Friedman	U.S.	consumption analysis, monetary theory, and economic stabilization
1977	James Edward Meade	U.K.	contributions to the theory of international trade
1977	Bertil Ohlin	Sweden	contributions to the theory of international trade
1978	Herbert A. Simon	U.S.	decision-making processes in economic organizations
1979	Sir Arthur Lewis	U.K.	analyses of economic processes in developing nations
1979	Theodore William Schultz	U.S.	analyses of economic processes in developing nations
1980	Lawrence R. Klein	U.S.	development and analysis of empirical models of business fluctuations
1981	James Tobin	U.S.	portfolio selection theory of investment
1982	George J. Stigler	U.S.	economic effects of governmental regulation
1983	Gerard Debreu	U.S.	mathematical proof of supply-and-demand theory
1984	Sir Richard Stone	U.K.	development of a national income accounting system
1985	Franco Modigliani	U.S.	analyses of household savings and financial markets
1986	James M. Buchanan	U.S.	public-choice theory bridging economics and political science
1987	Robert Solow	U.S.	contributions to the theory of economic growth
1988	Maurice Allais	France	contributions to the theory of markets and efficient use of resources
1989	Trygve Haavelmo	Norway	development of statistical techniques for economic forecasting
1990	Harry Markowitz	U.S.	study of financial markets and investment decision-making
	Merton H. Miller	U.S.	study of financial markets and investment decision-making
	William F. Sharpe	U.S.	study of financial markets and investment decision-making
1991	Ronald Coase	U.S.	application of economic principles to the study of law
1992	Gary S. Becker	U.S.	application of economic theory to social sciences
1993	Robert William Fogel	U.S.	contributions to economic history
1993	Douglass C. North	U.S.	contributions to economic history
1994	John C. Harsanyi	U.S.	development of game theory
	John Nash	U.S.	development of game theory
	Reinhard Selten	Germany	development of game theory
1995	Robert E. Lucas, Jr.	U.S.	incorporation of rational expectations in macroeconomic theory
1996	James Mirrlees	U.K.	contributions to the theory of incentives under conditions of asymmetric information
1996	William Vickrey	U.S.	contributions to the theory of incentives under conditions of asymmetric information
1997	Robert C. Merton	U.S.	method for determining the value of stock options and other derivatives
1997	Myron S. Scholes	U.S.	method for determining the value of stock options and other derivatives
1998	Amartya Sen	India	contributions to welfare economics
1999	Robert A. Mundell	Canada	analysis of optimum currency areas and of policy under different exchange-rate regimes
2000	James J. Heckman	U.S.	development of methods of statistical analysis of individual and household behavior
2000	Daniel L. McFadden	U.S.	development of methods of statistical analysis of individual and household behavior
2001	George A. Akerlof	U.S.	analysis of markets with asymmetric information
	A. Michael Spence	U.S.	analysis of markets with asymmetric information
	Joseph E. Stiglitz	U.S.	analysis of markets with asymmetric information
2002	Daniel Kahneman	U.S./Israel	integration of psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty
2002	Vernon L. Smith	U.S.	establishment of laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis
2003	Robert F. Engle	U.S.	development of techniques for the analysis of time series data
2003	Clive W.J. Granger	U.K.	development of techniques for the analysis of time series data
2004	Finn E. Kydland	Norway	contributions to dynamic macroeconomics
2004	Edward C. Prescott	U.S.	contributions to dynamic macroeconomics
2005	Robert J. Aumann	Israel	contributions to game-theory analysis
2005	Thomas C. Schelling	U.S.	contributions to game-theory analysis
2006	Edmund S. Phelps	U.S.	analysis of intertemporal trade-offs in macroeconomic policy
2007	Leonid Hurwicz	U.S.	work that laid the foundations of mechanism design theory
	Eric S. Maskin	U.S.	work that laid the foundations of mechanism design theory
	Roger B. Myerson	U.S.	work that laid the foundations of mechanism design theory
2008	Paul Krugman	U.S.	analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity
2009	Elinor Ostrom	U.S.	analysis of economic governance, especially the commons
2009	Oliver E. Williamson	U.S.	analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm
2010	Peter A. Diamond	U.S.	analysis of markets with search frictions
	Dale T. Mortensen	U.S.	analysis of markets with search frictions
	Christopher A. Pissarides	Cyprus/U.K.	analysis of markets with search frictions
2011	Thomas J. Sargent	U.S.	empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy
2011	Christopher A. Sims	U.S.	empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy
2012	Alvin E. Roth	U.S.	work on market design and matching theory
2012	Lloyd Shapley	U.S.	work on market design and matching theory
2013	Eugene F. Fama	U.S.	empirical analysis of asset prices
	Lars Peter Hansen	U.S.	empirical analysis of asset prices
	Robert J. Shiller	U.S.	empirical analysis of asset prices
2014	Jean Tirole	France	analysis of market power and regulation
2015	Angus Deaton	U.K.	analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare
2016	Oliver Hart	U.K.	contributions to contract theory
2016	Bengt Holmström	Finland	contributions to contract theory
2017	Richard Thaler	U.S.	contributions to behavioral economics
2018	William Nordhaus	U.S.	integration of climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis
2018	Paul Romer	U.S.	integration of technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis
2019	Abhijit Banerjee	U.S.	experimental approach to alleviating global poverty
	Esther Duflo	France/U.S.	experimental approach to alleviating global poverty
	Michael Kremer	U.S.	experimental approach to alleviating global poverty
2020	Paul Milgrom	U.S.	improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats
2020	Robert B. Wilson	U.S.	improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats
2021	Joshua Angrist	U.S./Israel	methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships
	David Card	Canada/U.S.	empirical contributions to labor economics
	Guido Imbens	Neth./U.S.	methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships
2022	Ben Bernanke	U.S.	research on banks and financial crises
	Douglas Diamond	U.S.	research on banks and financial crises
	Philip Dybvig	U.S.	research on banks and financial crises
2023	Claudia Goldin	U.S.	research on women’s labor market outcomes
2024	Daron Acemoglu	Turkey/U.S.	studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity
	Simon Johnson	U.K./U.S.	studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity
	James A. Robinson	U.S.	studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity
2025	Joel Mokyr	U.S./Israel	identification of the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress
	Philippe Aghion	France	theory of sustained growth through creative destruction
	Peter Wilkinson Howitt	Canada	theory of sustained growth through creative destruction
2026	Robert E. Hall	U.S.	microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization
2026	Michael Woodford	U.S.	microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization
* Officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, it is technically not a Nobel Prize, although it is identified with the award.
** Nationality given is the citizenship of the recipient at the time the award was made. Prizes may be withheld or not awarded in years when no worthy recipient can be found or when the world situation (e.g., World Wars I and II) prevents the gathering of information needed to reach a decision.

This article was most recently revised and updated by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica