Нобелевские лауреаты в области экономики / Nobel Memorial Prize Laureates in Economics

Министерство науки и высшего образования Российской Федерации 

Сибирский федеральный университет 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

В.А. Кононова, В.А. Разумовская 
 
 

НОБЕЛЕВСКИЕ ЛАУРЕАТЫ  
В ОБЛАСТИ ЭКОНОМИКИ 
 
NOBEL MEMORIAL PRIZE LAUREATES  
IN ECONOMICS 

 
Учебное пособие 
 
Textbook 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Красноярск 
СФУ 
2018 

УДК 
330.1(092)(07) 
ББК 
65.02-81я73 
К647 
 
 
 
Р е ц е н з е н т ы: 
И.Б. Руберт, доктор филологических наук, профессор кафедры 
теории языка и перевода Санкт-Петербургского государственного 
экономического университета; 
В.В. Сдобников, доктор филологических наук, заведующий 
кафедрой 
теории 
и 
практики 
английского 
языка 
и 
перевода 
Нижегородского государственного лингвистического университета им. 
Н.А. Добролюбова. 
 
 
Кононова, В.А. 
К647  
Нобелевские лауреаты в области экономики / Nobel 
Memorial Prize Laureates in Economics : учеб. пособие / В.А. Кононова, В.А. Разумовская. – Красноярск : Сиб. федер. ун-т, 2018. – 
204 с.  
ISBN 978-5-7638-4029-2 
 
Включены актуальные и современные тексты различных жанров из 
англоязычных научных, научно-популярных, публицистических и деловых 
изданий. 
Предназначено для занятий по английскому языку в рамках дисциплин 
«Иностранный язык», «Профессиональный иностранный язык», «Иностранный 
язык в бизнес-пространстве», «Междисциплинарная среда профессионального 
развития: «Деловой иностранный язык» для студентов, обучающихся по 
направлению 38.03.01 Экономика.  
 
 
 
 
Электронный вариант издания см.: 
 
 
УДК 
330.1(092)(07) 
http://catalog.sfu-kras.ru 
 
 
 
 
ББК 
65.02-81я73 
 
 
 
 
 
ISBN 978-5-7638-4029-2 
 
         © Сибирский федеральный университет, 2018 

ОТ АВТОРОВ 

 
 
 
Учебное пособие «Нобелевские лауреаты в области экономики / 
Nobel Memorial Prize Laureates in Economics» предназначено для занятий по практическому курсу английского языка для студентов, 
обучающихся по направлению 38.03.01 Экономика и является логическим продолжением пособий «Красноярский край: экономика. Практикум 
по письменному и устному переводу с листа» (С.В. Бершадская,  
В.А. Разумовская, У.В. Смирнова) и «Красноярский край: вопросы 
регионального развития. Практикум профессионально ориентированного 
письменного перевода и перевода с листа» (В.А. Разумовская, Н.В. Климович, Я.В. Соколовский), «Переводим тексты по экономике»  
(В.А. Разумовская, Н.В. Климович, Ю.Е. Валькова), «Профессионально 
ориентированная коммуникация на английском языке для экономистов» 
(В.А. Разумовская, Н.В. Климович, Ю.Е. Валькова), опубликованных в 
Сибирском федеральном университете в 2010, 2015, 2017 и 2018 годах. 
Цель пособия – формирование у студентов целостной картины о 
выдающихся экономических достижениях современности, а также 
совершенствование видов речевой деятельности студентов, прежде 
всего чтения и говорения, на заданные темы в их взаимосвязи.  
Текстовой материал пособия и используемая система упражнений 
направлены на формирование у студентов основных лингвистических 
компетенций (языковой, коммуникативной, дискурсивной) и межкультурной коммуникативной компетенции – обязательных для профессионального иноязычного общения. Материал пособия способствует 
усвоению систематизированных знаний, умений и навыков, позволяющих 
обучающимся осуществлять эффективную иноязычную и межкультурную 
профессиональную речевую деятельность. Используемые тексты являются 
фрагментами материалов, опубликованных в открытых источниках,  
и предназначены исключительно для учебно-методической работы. 
Авторы 
учебного 
пособия 
использовали 
опыт 
преподавания 
практического курса профессионально ориентированного английского 
языка для экономистов в Сибирском федеральном университете.  
 

ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ 

 
 
 
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 5 

 
Part I. TOP TEN ECONOMICS  NOBEL LAUREATES: EXPLORATION ... 8 

UNIT 1. Wassily Leontief: input-output analysis .............................................. 8 
UNIT 2. James Tobin: analysis of financial markets  and their relations  
to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices .......... 18 
UNIT 3. Ronald Coase: transaction costs and property rights  
for the institutional structure and functioning  of the economy ......... 28 
UNIT 4. Gary S. Becker: human behavior and interaction   
for microeconomic analysis ............................................................... 47 
UNIT 5. Robert C. Merton & Myron S. Scholes: new method  
to determine the value of derivatives ................................................. 57 
UNIT 6. Amartya Sen: social choice,  welfare distributions, and poverty ....... 68 
UNIT 7. Robert A. Mundell: analysis  of optimum currency areas ................. 80 
UNIT 8. Daniel Kahneman: integrated insights from psychological  
research into economic science ......................................................... 91 
UNIT 9. Edmund S. Phelps: analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs   
in macroeconomic policy ................................................................. 102 
UNIT 10. Paul Krugman: analysis of trade patterns   
and location of economic activity .................................................... 108 

 
Part II. TOP TEN ECONOMICS NOBEL LAUREATES: READER ........... 116 

READER 1. Wassily Leontief .......................................................................... 116 
READER 2. James Tobin ................................................................................. 119 
READER 3. Ronald H. Coase .......................................................................... 136 
READER 4. Gary S. Becker ............................................................................. 139 
READER 5. Robert C. Merton & Myron S. Scholes ....................................... 156 
READER 6. Amartya Sen ................................................................................ 161 
READER 7. Robert A. Mundell ....................................................................... 170 
READER 8. Daniel Kahneman ........................................................................ 186 
READER 9. Edmund S. Phelps ........................................................................ 192 
READER 10. Paul Krugman ............................................................................ 199 
 

INTRODUCTION 

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from 

all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, 
medicine, literature, and for work in peace. The foundations for the prize 
were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, 
entrepreneur, and philanthropist, wrote his last will, leaving much of his 
wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.  
The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel 
Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Foundation is a private 
institution. It is entrusted with protecting the common interests of the Prize 
Awarding Institutions named in the will, as well as representing the Nobel 
institutions externally. This includes informational activities as well as 
arrangements related to the presentation of the Nobel Prizes. The Foundation 
is not, however, involved in the selection process and the final choice of the 
Laureates (as Nobel Prize winners are also called). In this work, the PrizeAwarding Institutions are not only entirely independent of all government 
agencies and organizations, but also of the Nobel Foundation. Their 
autonomy is of crucial importance to the objectivity and quality of their prize 
decisions. One vital task of the Foundation is to manage its assets in such a 
way as to safeguard the financial base of the prizes themselves and of the 
prize selection process. 
In 1968, on the occasion of its 300th anniversary in 1968, the Sveriges 
Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) made a large donation to the Nobel 
Foundation. They established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic 
Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which is informally called the Nobel 
Prize in Economics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is entrusted 
with the role of Prize Awarding-Institution, in accordance with Nobel Prize 
rules. The Board of the Nobel Foundation has subsequently decided that it 
will allow no further new prizes.  

The Nobel Prize in Economics is awarded each year for outstanding 

contributions in the field of economics.  
Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a monetary 

award that has varied throughout the years. The prize winners in Economics 
receive their diploma and gold medal from the Swedish monarch at the same 
December 10 ceremony, the anniversary of Nobel’s death, in Stockholm as 
the Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and 

literature. The amount of money awarded to the economics laureates is also 
equal to that of the other prizes.  
The candidates eligible for the Prize in Economics are those 
nominated by qualified persons who have received an invitation from the 
Economics Prize Committee to submit names for consideration. No one can 
nominate himself or herself. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences  
is responsible for the choice of the Laureates in Economics from among  
the candidates recommended by the Economics Prize Committee.  
The Economics Prize Committee is the working body that screens  
the nominations and selects the final candidates for the Prize in Economics. 
It is composed of five members, but for many years the Committee has 
included adjunct members with the same voting rights as members. 
The first Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded in 1969 to Ragnar 

Frisch (Norway) and Jan Tinbergen (Netherlands) for having developed and 
applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes. Since then, 
49 Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economic Sciences have been given to 79 
individuals by 2018. Up to 2007, nine awards had been given for 
contributions to the field of macroeconomics, more than any other category. 
The institution with the most affiliated laureates in economic sciences is the 
University of Chicago, which has 29 affiliated laureates. 
This book introduces 10 outstanding scholars in the sphere of 

Economics as Forbes Top Ten. Forbes, the world-known business 
magazine, gives prominence to these ten Nobel laureates in Economics, 
whose works have had the most serious impact on the world economy.  
The Forbes Top Ten Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economic Sciences 
were given to: 

1. Wassily Leontief (Russia) in 1973, for the development of the 

input-output method and for its application to important economic problems; 

2. James Tobin (USA) in 1981, for his analysis of financial markets 

and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and 
prices; 

3. Ronald Coase (USA) in 1991, for his discovery and clarification 

of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the 
institutional structure and functioning of the economy; 

4. Gary Becker (USA) in 1992, for having extended the domain of 

microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and 
interaction, including nonmarket behaviour; 

5. Robert C. Merton (USA) and Myron Scholes (Canada) in 1997, 
for a new method to determine the value of derivatives; 
 

6. Amartya Sen (India) in 1998, for his analysis of monetary and 

fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of 
optimum currency areas; 

7. Robert Mundell (Canada) in 1999, for his analysis of monetary 

and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of 
optimum currency areas; 

8. Daniel Kahneman (France/Israel/USA) in 2002, for having 

integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, 
especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under 
uncertainty; 

9. Edmund Phelps (USA) in 2006, for his analysis of intertemporal 

tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy; 

10.  Paul Krugman (USA) in 2008, for his analysis of trade patterns 
and location of economic activity. 

– Part I – 
TOP TEN ECONOMICS

NOBEL LAUREATES: EXPLORATION 

UNIT 1 
Wassily Leontief: input-output analysis 

The role of humans as the most 
important factor of production  
is bound to diminish in the same way 
that the role of horses in agricultural 
production was first diminished and 
then eliminated by the introduction  
of tractors. 
 
The human worker will go the way  
of the horse. 

 
Wassily Leontief

In short                                                  SCHOLAR’S VOICE 

1) Work in pairs and speculate on the quotations. Will humans go 

the way of horses, in your opinion? What can the quotation tell you 
about Wassily Leontiev? Use the following sentence frames:  
 
I think/believe / assume… The author seems to be/ have… 
 

By and large                                              INTRODUCTION 

2) Read some facts from Wassily Leontief’s biography. What,  
in your view, was his impetus for study and career?  
 
 
Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief (Василий Леонтьев; 1905–1999), was a German
Russian economist notable for his research on how changes in one economic sector may 
have an effect on other sectors.  

The son of Wassily W. Leontief (professor of Economics) and Zlata Becker, Wassily 

Leontief Jr. was born in 1905, in Munich, Germany. As a young man, Wassily grew up  
in Saint-Petersburg, and in 1921, W. Leontief entered the University of Leningrad and 
earned his Learned Economist degree (equivalent to Master of Arts) in 1924 at the age  
of 19. He continued his studies at the Frederick William University in Berlin, and in 1928 
earned a Ph.D. degree in Economics, writing his dissertation on The Economy as Circular 
Flow (original German title: Die Wirtschaft als Kreislauf).  

In 1931, he went to the United States and was employed by the National Bureau  

of Economic Research. Leontief joined Harvard University’s department of economics  
in 1932 and in 1946 became Professor of Economics there. 

In 1949, Leontief used an early computer at Harvard and data from the U.S. Bureau  

of Labor Statistics to divide the U.S. economy into 500 sectors. Leontief modeled each 
sector with a linear equation based on the data and used the computer, the Harvard Mark II,  
to solve the system, one of the first significant uses of computers for mathematical 
modeling, along with George W. Snedecor’s usage of the Atanasoff-Berry computer. 
Leontief set up the Harvard Economic Research Project in 1948 and remained its director 
until 1973. Starting in 1965, he chaired the Harvard Society of Fellows. 

From the time he was a young man in Saint Petersburg, Wassily Leontief devoted his 

studies to input-output analysis. When he left Russia for Germany at the age of nineteen, 
he had already shown how Leon Walras’s abstract equilibrium theory* could be quantified. 
But it was not until many years later, in 1941, while a professor at Harvard, that Leontief 
calculated an input-output table for the American economy. It was this work, and later 
refinements of it, that earned Wassily Leontief the Nobel Prize in 1973 “for the 
development of the input-output method and for its application to important economic 
problems”. 

Input-output analysis shows the extensive process by which inputs in one industry 

produce outputs for consumption or for input into another industry. The matrix devised by 
Leontief is often used to show the effect of a change in production of a final good on the 
demand for inputs. Take, for example, a 10 percent increase in the production of shoes. 
With the input-output table, one can estimate how much additional leather, labor, 
machinery, and other inputs will be required to increase shoe production.  

* General equilibrium theory both studies economies using the model of equilibrium pricing and seeks 
to determine in which circumstances the assumptions of general equilibrium will hold. The theory  
is authored by French economist Léon Walras and dates to the 1870s. 

3) Have a list of Wassily Leontief’s awards and memberships. 
What countries did he work in?  
 
WASSILY LEONTIEF’S AWARDS 
 
• 1953: Order of the Cherubim, University of Pisa 
• 1962: Dr honoris causa*, University of Brussels 
• 1967: Dr of the University, University of York 
• 1968: Officer of the French Légion d'honneur 
• 1970: Bernhard-Harms Prize Economics, West Germany 
• 1971: Dr honoris causa, University of Louvain 
• 1972: Dr honoris causa, University of Paris (Sorbonne) 
• 1973: Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory  
of Alfred Nobel, a.k.a. Nobel Prize in Economics 
• 1976: Dr honoris causa, University of Pennsylvania 
• 1980: Dr honoris causa, University of Toulouse 
• 1980: Dr honoris causa, University of Louisville, Kentucky 
• 1980: Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Vermont 
• 1980: Doctor of Laws, C. W. Post Center, Long Island University 
• 1980: Russian-American Hall of Fame 
• 1981: Karl Marx University, Budapest 
• 1984: Order of the Rising Sun, Japan 
• 1985: Commandeur, French Order of Arts and Letters 
• 1988: Dr honoris causa, Adelphi College 
• 1988: Foreign member, USSR Academy of Sciences 
• 1989: Society of the Optimate, Italian Cultural Institute, New York 
• 1990: Dr honoris causa, University of Córdoba, Spain 
• 1991: Takemi Memorial Award, Institute of Seizon & Life Sciences, 
Japan 
• 1995: Harry Edmonds Award for Life Achievement, International 
House, NY  
• 1995: Dr honoris causa, Humboldt University, Berlin 
• Award of Excellence, The International Center in New York 
 
 
 
 

                                                           
* The Doctorate Honoris Causa is the highest distinction which university gives a person  
in recognition of his/her career in the academic, scientific or cultural fields, of his/her values, 
as well as his/her special link with university. 

WASSILY LEONTIEF’S MEMBERSHIPS 

 
• 1954: President of the Econometric Society 
• 1968: Corresponding Member of the Institut de France 
• 1970: President of the American Economic Association 
• 1970: Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy 
• 1974: US-USSR Commission on the Social Sciences and Humanities 
of the International Research and Exchanges Board 
• 1975: American Committee on East-West Accord 
• 1975: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincie, Italy 
• 1976: President and Section F. of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science 
• 1976: Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy 
• 1977: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science 
• 1978: Commission to Study the Organization of Peace 
• 1978–1986: Board of Trustees of North Carolina School of Science 
and Mathematics 
• 1979: Century Club 
• 1979: Issues Committee of the Progressive Alliance 
• 1980: Committee for National Security 
• 1981: Board of Visitors, College of Liberal Arts, Boston University 
• 1981: Board of Editors, Journal of Business Strategy 
• 1982: International Advisory Council of the Delian Institute of 
International Relations 
• 1982: Accademia Mediterranea Delle Scienze, Italy 
• 1983: Board of Advisors, Environmental Fund 
• 1983: Board of Directors, Tolstoy Foundation 
• 1985: International Committee, Carnegie Mellon University 
• 1990: Academy of Creative Endeavors, USSR 
• 1992: International Charitable Foundation, Russia 
• 1993: Academie Europeenne 
• 1993: Honorary President of the World Academy for the Progress  
of Planning Science, Italy 
• 1993: Member of the Academie Universelle des Cultures, France 
• 1994: Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences 
• 1995: Member of the International Leadership Center on Longevity  
& Society, Mt. Sinai Hospital 
• American Philosophical Society 
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
• International Statistical Institute