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Prescott to receive Nobel Prize during festivities

ASU Economics Professor Edward Prescott fields reporter's questions after learning he has received the 2004 Nobel Prize for Economics.

The excitement that started with a 4 a.m. phone call nearly two months ago culminates Dec. 10 when the king of Sweden presents Arizona State University Professor Edward C. Prescott with the Nobel Prize in Economics at a white tie ceremony in Stockholm.

Prescott, who holds the W. P. Carey Chair in Economics at the W. P. Carey School of Business, will share the prize with his collaborator, Finn Kydland of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Carnegie Mellon University.

The white tie award ceremony is held annually on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, at the Concert Hall in Stockholm. His Majesty the King of Sweden presents the gold Nobel medal and diploma to each laureate. The ceremony begins at 4 p.m. Stockholm time, or 8 a.m. in Arizona. Immediately following the ceremony the laureates and their families are guests of honor at a formal banquet at Stockholm City Hall.

Economics Professor Edward Prescott sits with ASU President Michael Crow during the announcement of Prescott winning the Nobel Prize for Economics.

The ceremony is the high point of a series of events that began on Dec. 1, when the Nobel laureates from the United States were honored by President George W. Bush at the White House. Prescott departed for Stockholm Dec. 5 for a week of receptions, dinners and interviews. Dec. 8, Prescott delivers the Nobel Lecture in Economics at Stockholm University’s Aula Magna Hall.

Prescott and Kydland were lauded by the Nobel Prize committee “for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.”

Edward Prescott, ASU first Nobel Prize winner, is honored during halftime of the ASU-UCLA football game.

Known for his work on growth theory and time inconsistency, Prescott is one of a small circle of scholars who have altered the course of macroeconomic thinking in the past three decades. The span of his research includes seminal work in business cycles, economic development, general equilibrium theory, and finance, and has addressed some of the most important long-standing questions in economics. His insights have had profound implications for the conduct of fiscal and monetary policy and even bank regulatory issues. Within the discipline Prescott is also known for his impact on students.  His doctoral students are rising stars at universities across the country.

More information about the events in Stockholm this week may be found at http://nobelprize.org/nobel/events/schedule/index.html. Photos from the White House visit may be viewed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/images/20041201-4_kw7k1186jpg-515h.html.

W. P. Carey School of Business (http://wpcarey.asu.edu)

W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is one of the largest business schools in the United States with more than 150 faculty, 1,000 graduate and 2,600 upper-division undergraduate students.  The school is internationally recognized for its leadership in supply chain management and services marketing and highly regarded for its faculty’s research productivity.  The L. William Seidman Research Institute focuses on applied research in economics, leveraging the research capabilities of the school’s faculty. The school is ranked 25th nationally for its undergraduate programs and 29th for the W. P. Carey MBA.