Classroom Expernomics Reader Shares Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences!!!!

 - John Neral

The 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Vernon Smith of George Mason University and Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University.  Professor Smith was awarded his share of the prize for “for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms.”  Each one of us who utilizes “experimental” exercises in the classroom is deeply indebted to Vernon for his pioneering work in establishing experimental economics as a credible subfield of economics.

 Vernon was a subscriber to this humble newsletter (in its former hardcopy form) at its inception, and was almost certainly the first to cite one of its articles in a “serious” journal when he cited Gillette and Del Mas (Classroom Expernomics, 1(2), 1992) in his 1994 JEP article, “Economics in the Laboratory.”

 In 1990, Vernon (and I) attended a conference on experimental economics at the University of Pittsburgh.  Since I was one of the (semi-)locals who had a car at the conference, I had the privilege of driving Vernon (and three others) to a dinner party one evening in my (very crowded) Toyota Tercel.  I recall him being sandwiched between two other economists in the back seat for what must have been a very uncomfortable ride.  (I only hope that he doesn’t remember it as well as I do.)

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