Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded 579 times to 911 people and organizations while The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded 48 times to 78 Laureates dating back to 1969. Two of those 78 Nobel Laureates to receive the honor are notable Little League® graduates, Edward Prescott and Robert Merton. In honor of Nobel Week, December 6 to 12, here is a look at these esteemed graduates and the accomplishments they have achieved since their time as Little Leaguers®.
Edward Prescott
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (2004)
Edward Prescott, a graduate of Glens Falls (N.Y.) Little League in the early 1950s, was awarded with the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, alongside Finn E. Kydland, in 2004 “for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.” The distinguished award was given to Mr. Prescott and Mr. Kydland after a pair of research papers, “Rules Rather than Discretion: The Inconsistency of Optimal Planning” and “Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations,” written in 1977 and 1982, respectively.
Along with his Nobel Prize, some of Mr. Prescott’s honors include being awarded the United States National Academy of Sciences (2008), the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics (2002), and the Alexander Henderson Award at Carnegie Mellon (1967), and in 2014 was appointed as an Adjunct Distinguished Economic Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. According to the RePEc/IDEAS rankings, Mr. Prescott and Mr. Kydland’s work remains among the top 50 cited research items of all time.
Robert Merton
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (1997)
Robert Merton, a graduate of Hastings-on-Hudson (N.Y.) Little League in the mid-1950s, was awarded the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, alongside Myron Scholes, in 1997 for their work on stock options, specifically expanding the Black-Scholes formula. Throughout his career, Mr. Merton’s research has been primarily focused on finance theory including lifecycle finance, optimal intertemporal portfolio selection, capital asset pricing, pricing of options, risky corporate debt, loan guarantees, and other complex derivative securities.
Along with his Nobel Prize, some of Mr. Merton’s honors include being named a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1993), receiving the inaugural Financial Engineer of the Year Award from the International Association of Financial Engineers, earning a Lifetime Achievement Award in mathematical finance (1999), and receiving the Kolmogorov Medal (2010). In 2005, the Baker Library at Harvard University also opened The Merton Exhibit in his honor. Today, Mr. Merton is the School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management, is a resident scientist at Dimensional Fund Advisors, and is a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University.
NOTE: If you know of a former notable Little League graduate that is also a Nobel Laureate, please e-mail the information, including name, year of award, and the name of the city or town where they played Little League, to [email protected].