The Nobel factor : the prize in economics, social democracy, and the market turn / Avner Offer and Gabriel Soderberg.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book tells how the prize, created by the Swedish central bank, emerged from a conflict between central bank orthodoxy and social democracy. The aim was to use the halo of the Nobel brand to enhance central bank authority and the prestige of market-friendly economics, in order to influence the future of Sweden and the rest of the developed world. And this strategy has worked, with sometimes disastrous results for societies striving to cope with the requirements of economic theory and deregulated markets. Drawing on previously untapped Swedish national bank archives and providing a unique analysis of the sway of prizewinners, the book offers an unprecedented account of the real-world consequences of economics--and its greatest prize.