An American and a Norwegian won the 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences for research on how government policies affect economies around the world and why supply-side shocks like high oil prices can dampen business cycles.
The work by Norwegian Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott, a professor at Arizona State University at Tempe, has led to reforms at many of the world's central banks, the citation said. Their research also has given academics better tools for understanding what causes economies to boom or go into recession, it added.
The two professors, who both earned their doctorates at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have collaborated on work since the 1970s. They will share an award worth 10 million Swedish kronor (US$1.3 million).
Kydland, 60, teaches at Carnegie Mellon and at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Pres-cott, 63, has taught at a number of universities, including the University of Minnesota, the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Besides teaching at Arizona State, he also serves as an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, which oversees the prize, said that the professors' research showed that governments and central banks could be more effective if they adopted consistent, long-term rules and followed them.
Kydland, who is on a brief visit to Norway, told reporters that he learned about the prize while lecturing students at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen.
"I was a little perturbed when they interrupted my lecture until I got to the secretary's office and found out what the phone call was about," he said. "It is wonderful to get this recognition."
Prescott, who became the fifth American to receive the award since 2000, told reporters in Tempe that he learned he had won the Nobel prize in a 4am phone call.
"I am honored and thank all those that have helped me, in particular Finn Kydland," Prescott said. "The money is nice, but I am not in this game for the money. I am in it because I love doing it -- figuring things out and interacting with students and colleagues."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not