Israeli-American Economics Prof Wins Nobel Prize

Israeli-American Economics Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Joshua D. Angrist won a Nobel Prize on October 11.

Angrist was one of three winners of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences; the other two were UC Berkeley Professor David Card and Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Guido W. Imbens. The three professors won the award due to their work in the field of natural experiments, where economists study the effects of real-life events. Peter Frederiksson, chairman of the Economic Sciences Prize Committee said in a statement that the professors’ “research has substantially improved our ability to answer key causal questions, which has been of great benefit to society.” The professors will split a 10 million Swedish krona ($1.1 million) cash prize.

Prior to working at MIT, Angrist taught at Hebrew University from 1995-96 and at Harvard University from 1989-91. He also served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces and was part of a 1994 group studying Israeli-Palestinian Labor Market Relations, The Times of Israel reported.

Angrist’s research in natural experiments has focused on Israel’s education system, including how the Jewish student limits class sizes because of a theory from 12th-century scholar Moses Maimonides. Angrist found mixed results on whether class sizes correlate with academic performance.

“Classes have gotten smaller in Israel,” he told Econ Focus, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s magazine. “Maybe we’re into a zone where it doesn’t matter much anymore.”