US rabbi-professor favorite for Nobel in economics

New York University professor of economics, and Orthodox rabbi, Dr. Israel Kirzner is one of the favorites to win this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics.

The Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates, a scientifically backed rating agency, named Kirzner as a front-runner on its annual list of candidates likely to win the Nobel Prize in their respective fields.

The economics prize will be announced on Monday, October 13.

Kirzner is an emeritus professor of economics at New York University and his research on entrepreneurial economics and the ethics of markets is widely recognized. If selected, Kirzner will share the prize with fellow New York University Professor William Baumol.

Having successfully predicted 35 Nobel winners since 2002, the Thomson Reuters forecast of winners analyzes the impact and contribution that the candidates’ research has had on the scientific community by calculating the number of publications as well as references made to them.

Perennial candidates for the Nobel Prize in literature to be announced Thursday, meanwhile, include Philip Roth, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and Israel’s Amos Oz.

Predicting winners in the literature category is largely speculative, and the Thomson Reuters agency does not do so.

However, betting firms like Ladbrokes accept bets for the literature prize, and Ladbrokes claims to have accurately predicted the winner four times by analyzing other literary awards and monitoring the “buzz” surrounding the authors. Currently, Ladbrokes has Roth at odds of 12/1, Dylan at 25/1, and Oz at 33/1. The only Israeli to win a Nobel Prize in Literature was S.Y. Agnon in 1966.

Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Japanese author Haruki Murakami are Ladbroker’ favorites, with odds of 7/2 and 9/2 respectively.