Cut him down to size?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Cut him down to size?

So far 67 people have shared in 42 Nobel Economics Prizes.

Only one of them has been a woman.

The prize even attracts criticism from those who are awarded it.

The Swedish economist and Nobelist Gunnar Myrdal later advocated its abolition on the ground that it had also been awarded to “reactionaries” such as the Austrian Friedrich Hayek and Professor Milton Friedman of Chicago.

Funnily enough, both Myrdal and Hayek shared the 1974 Prize.

Even more curious, in his speech at the prize dinner, Hayek said that if he had been asked about the establishment of a Nobel Economics Prize, he would have decidedly advised against it.

Hayek’s speech is a cautionary tale.

“The Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority which in economics no man ought to possess,” he said.

“This does not matter in the natural sciences. Here the influence exercised by an individual is chiefly an influence on his fellow experts; and they will soon cut him down to size if he exceeds his competence.

“But the influence of the economist that mainly matters is an influence over laymen: politicians, journalists, civil servants and the public generally.”

This is a sobering thought.

- Nobel prize winners meet to discuss the world economy, BBC.co.uk, August 31, 2011.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.