If you'd like to learn more about today's Nobel Prize winners in economics (except it's not a real Nobel Prize, right?) I'd recommend Alex Tabarrok's post here which at least gave me a taste of what "mechanism design" might be.
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Mechanism Design Theory for Dummies
15 Oct 2007 09:51 am
Comments (9)
Sounds like so much more bullshit, which is what every "Nobel Prize" in economics is given for. I guess some of these prizes have some sort of real world application but few of these are in the spirit of the awards. I read an article a few months back that even analyzed the winners and found they correspond, very narrowingly, to the dominant neoclassical U of Chicago theory in vogue today.
This "Nobel Prize" is a joke, and I am perplexed as to why the Nobel committee allows this prize to share so much of the prestige that comes with winning a Nobel prize.
Joshua,
The so-called "Nobel Prize" in economics is technically not a Nobel Prize, and the Nobel family is really pissed at the Swedish central bank for establishing it. Formally, it's called "Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel" and has only been around since 1968.
Norway, I understand that (that is why I put the words Nobel Prize in italics), but it is nonetheless on the Nobel Committee's website, treated functionally the same as all other prizes on the site, it is announced in the same window, reported on as a "Nobel Prize in Economics", people who win it are called "Nobel Prize winners" by the press and public, the winners are entitled to similar prize monies, etc. The Nobel Committee, I am sure, could do something about this if they wanted to.
Joshua,
Right, surely they have trademark laws in Scandinavia? Under US trademark law, you can't use the word Super Bowl in an advertisement without the NFL's consent, and no one confuses a store's sale of widescreen TV's to watch "the big game" with the big game itself.
If the Nobel Committee hasn't consented but is powerless to prevent others from using the term "Nobel Prize", what's to stop the adult film industry from creating the Bank of Sperm Prize in Porn Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel"? Newspapers could cite Nobel Laureate Ron Jeremy.
I use that example because IIRC, it was the trademark issue that led the MPAA to change the X rating to NC-17 (they were powerless to stop the porn industry from diluting the value of the X rating by promoting XXX movies).
I'm quite shocked (seriously) that the usually intelligent commenters on this blog are calling mechanism design "bullshit" and a "scam". Are you actually familiar with the scholarship, or are you giving an armchair view of what you see as the ol' goofy economics stuff? Mechanism design has been used to efficiently assign New York City 9th graders to high schools, to maximize government revenues when auctioning wireless spectrum, etc. etc. etc.
I second nbt. Quite a reactionary response here.
Intelligent resign!
Machination-resign practice:
www.complexxon.org
These people should at least have the intelligible overview to refuse this nonsense.
They are just taking advantage of the opportunities of a miserable situation.
It's a disgrace for humanity.
Where are the results?
See letter to Nobel Prize Committee on
"Originality in Mechanism Design Theory"
Comments closed October 29, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
It sounds like "How to Fleece Potential Buyers".
That's what they give Nobel Prizes in Econ for? Sounds jolly. Like a real complicated Nigerian scam.
Posted by Jeffrey Davis | October 15, 2007 12:11 PM