Israeli-American economist Joshua Angrist wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics

• Author: AARON REICH
• Published date: 11 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Natural experiments use real-life situations to work out impacts on the world, an approach that has spread to other fields and revolutionized empirical research.

The prize, formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the last of this year's crop of Nobels. The winners share 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14m.).

Canadian-born Card, 65, a professor of economics at the University of Berkeley, California, received half the prize "for his empirical contributions to labor economics," the academy said.

Angrist and Imbens, the latter of whom is 58 and a professor of economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, shared the other half "for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships."

"I was just absolutely stunned to get a telephone call; then I was just absolutely thrilled to hear the news," Imbens said on a call with reporters in Stockholm, adding that he was thrilled to share the prize with two of his good friends. Angrist was the best man at his wedding.

The three laureates had "provided us with new insights about the labor market and shown what conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn from natural experiments," Nobel Institute said in a statement, NBC reported.

The official Israel Twitter account, run by the Foreign Ministry, congratulated Angrist, 61, on his achievement.

Angrist was born in Columbus, Ohio, and later made aliyah to Israel. He received his master's degree and PhD in economics from Princeton University in 1987 and 1989, respectively. He worked at both Harvard University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he remains.

Angrist made aliyah in 1982 and lived here until 1985. He later came back to teach in Hebrew University's Economics Department in 1995-1996.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in 2006, Angrist explained why he left, saying he "was tired of the situation" in which professors in fields such as computer science and economics were paid the same as professors of literature.

"Talented people who might like to work in Israel have to pay a high price for that financially," he said. "It's hard to retain people with that kind of system."

"Congrats to MIT's Prof. Joshua Angrist on winning a share of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 'methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships,'" MIT tweeted.

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