Former 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve System (FED), Ben Bernanke, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on the stability of the financial system. He shares the prize with Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig. The news was announced in Stockholm on Monday (10 October).
As former chairman of the US central bank, Bernanke played a pivotal role in combating the financial crisis in 2007-2008. Bernanke, now associated with the Brookings Institution think tank for domestic economic policy, demonstrated in a 1983 paper how a 'run' on banks, in which worried depositors withdraw their money en masse, could cause banks to fail and plunge the economy into depression. Banks were thus at the root of the 1930s' Great Depression.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was shared by David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens. Card received the prize for his contribution to labour economics, Angrist and Imbens were awarded for their research on causal relationships.
source: commonspace.eu with agencies
photo: Former US central bank chairman Ben Bernanke. AFP
