As the globe grapples with the problem of greenhouse gases and tries to restore the battered economy to health, research into the economics of climate change or the key to what truly makes consumers tick could be contenders for this year's Nobel prize in economics.
The last of the six Nobel prizes announced this year, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to be announced today is not among the original awards and was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in Alfred Nobel's memory.
If history is any guide, being American and male is no hindrance to winning. Since 1980, the prize has gone to American winners 23 times. No woman has won the prize since it was first awarded in 1969.
Though the prize committee most often chooses to reward older research that has stood the test of time, relatively new work on consumer thinking from Austrian Ernst Fehr, a behavioral economist of the University of Zurich, is running high in the speculation debate.
Matthew Rabin, a 45-year-old American at the University of California at Berkeley with similar interests, is also mentioned frequently.
Fehr's research backs up the adage that revenge is sweet.Fehr found that the part of the human brain associated with satisfaction was more active when people contemplated getting even.
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