北京时间10月11日,作为压轴奖项的诺贝尔经济学奖揭晓,一半奖项授予经济学家David Card,以表彰“他对劳动经济学的实证研究性的贡献”;另一半授予经济学家Joshua D. Angrist和Guido W. Imbens,以表彰“他们在因果关系分析方面的方法论贡献”。下面是《纽约时报》的相关描述:
Mr. Angrist and Mr. Imbens have contributed to the way researchers think about and analyze natural experiments.
They showed that it is possible to identify a clear effect from an intervention in people’s behavior — like a subsidy that might encourage people to ride bicycles to work — even if a researcher cannot control who takes part in the experiment, and even if the impact varies across individuals. The pair also came up with a transparent framework for such research that has increased trust in it.
“The challenge, for me, has always been trying to understand, when people do empirical work, what exactly the methodological challenges are,” Mr. Imbens said, speaking to the announcement’s news conference via telephone.