At 4:55 p.m. on October 11 (Hanoi time), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics went to three scientists David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens.

David Card, born in 1956 in Canada, teaches at the University of California, Berkeley (USA) was awarded half of the 2021 Nobel Prize `for his empirical contributions to labor economics`.

Meanwhile, two scientists Joshua Angrist (born 1960) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Guido Imbens (born 1963) of Stanford University received the remaining half of the Nobel Prize `for their methodological contributions in

From left, David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens.

The works of these three scientists were drawn from unintended experiments, also known as `natural experiments`.

According to the organization, the three scientists `have provided us with new insights into the labor market and pointed to cause-and-effect conclusions that can be drawn from natural experiments.`

In the early 1990s, Card conducted an empirical study on the impact of increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey (USA) on the fast food sector.

Another of his studies was the impact of the Cuban government in 1980 allowing people to leave the country if they wanted to.

The prize committee noted that natural experiments are difficult to interpret, but Angrist and Imbens in the mid-1990s resolved methodological issues to show that the correct conclusions about cause and effect

`I was really stunned when I got the phone call, then I was extremely emotional when I heard the news,` Imbens said on a call with reporters in Stockholm.

Last year, the Nobel Prize in Economics went to two American scientists, Paul R.Milgrom and Robert B.Wilson.

Economics is usually the last prize awarded each year, after the Nobels in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace.

However, the process of nominating, selecting and awarding the Nobel Prize in Economics remains similar to other fields.

Year

Award winner

Construction

Nation

2021

David Card, Joshua Angrist, Guido Imbens.

Experimental research on labor economics

Methodology in analyzing economic cause and effect relationships

Canada, America

2020

Paul R. Milgrom, Robert B. Wilson

Improve auction theory and create new auction forms

America

2019

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer

An empirical approach to reducing global poverty

America and France

2018

William Nordhaus

Paul Romer

Climate economics

Endogenous growth theory

America

2017

Richard H. Thaler

Behavioral economics

America

2016

Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström

Contract theory

America and Finland

2015

Angus Deaton

The relationship between consumption, poverty and well-being

America

2014

Jean Tirole

How to manage large corporations and companies in the market.

France

two thousand and thirteen

Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, Robert J. Shiller

Asset price analysis

America

2012

Alvivin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley

Stable distribution theory and market creation practice

America

2011

Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims

The relationship between macroeconomic policies and their impact on the economy

America

2010

Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen, and Christopher A. Pissarides

New formula for interaction in the market, between the party having goods, services, jobs… and the party searching

UK, US

2009

Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson

Method of operating the economy

America