It's not actually one of the Nobel prizes as set up by Alfred Nobel. The full name is the "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel".
It was set up by the Swedish central bank to free ride on the good reputation of the actual prizes. Their motivation was to push economic policies beneficial to themselves (mainly promoting the political independence of central banks in the beginning).
The bank paid to establish it, but it is run by the Nobel Foundation, and the winners are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (which also selects the winners for chemistry and physics), and it follows the same rules as the original prizes.
Comments
It's not actually one of the Nobel prizes as set up by Alfred Nobel. The full name is the "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel".
It was set up by the Swedish central bank to free ride on the good reputation of the actual prizes. Their motivation was to push economic policies beneficial to themselves (mainly promoting the political independence of central banks in the beginning).
The bank paid to establish it, but it is run by the Nobel Foundation, and the winners are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (which also selects the winners for chemistry and physics), and it follows the same rules as the original prizes.