npub1te…4efzn on Nostr: When Hayek won the Nobel Prize in 1974, he did something unusual: he questioned ...

When Hayek won the Nobel Prize in 1974, he did something unusual: he questioned whether economists should be given a Nobel Prize in the first place.

At the Nobel banquet, Hayek said that if he had been consulted about creating the prize, he would have advised against it.

His concern was the authority the award could confer on economists. It could lead politicians, journalists, and the public to treat an economist as an expert on subjects far beyond his area of competence.

Hayek suggested that Nobel laureates should at the very least take an “oath of humility,” promising not to speak beyond the limits of their knowledge.