Saturday, October 18, 2008

A Defense on Paul Krugman's Nobel Price (fg)

Many commentators on the nobel price going to Paul Kurgman claimed that it is more a political signal rather than pure scientific reasoning. To them, Krugman offers the wrong economic and policital statements in his columns in the NYT. President of the Amercian Economic Association Avinash Dixit now steps into the breach for Krugman. Although he has resentiments against Krugman's writings
I have not said anything about Krugman’s popular writings, most importantly because they are not the reason for his “ennobelment,” but also to a small extent because I sometimes dislike his polemical and combative style of writing at the same time as I agree with the substance of his criticisms.
he still thinks that Krugman won the Nobel Prize rightly.
In the last 10 years, Krugman has achieved fame in a much larger arena with his columns in the New York Times. These offer strong views on economics and politics, and they have been harshly critical of the Bush administration on most issues. It is no wonder that they attract adulation from readers who share his views on these matters and hatred from the other side. The former delight in his Nobel Prize, and the latter are shocked and dismayed by it, but both these reactions are mistaken. The prize has nothing to do with the Op Ed columns and would have come to Krugman just the same if he had never written a single one of them. The prize celebrates his achievements in science, not in the policy arena. It is therefore important to summarise and clarify exactly what those achievements are.