Press Statement - October 15, 1998

PS 98-17
Media contact:	Bill Noxon	(703) 306-1070	wnoxon@nsf.gov

Statement by Dr. Joseph Bordogna
Acting Deputy Director
National Science Foundation

On the Award of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Amartya Sen

I am pleased to congratulate the 1998 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Amartya Sen, a citizen of India, who just this year left a key position at Harvard University to become a professor at Trinity College in Cambridge, England.

Dr. Sen's seminal work in welfare economics has provided significant new insights into economic theory and practice by combining the tools of economic science with those of philosophy. His work in the late 1980s and early1990s at Harvard was supported by National Science Foundation grants, from which we have gained a rich new understanding of the ethical dimensions of economic mechanisms underlying income equality, poverty and famine.

It is important to note that about 60% of the 30 Nobel Laureates in economics have received support from NSF. This is another reason I believe that American taxpayers have it right when they place their confidence in federal support for scientific and engineering research, because the support helps makes possible the achievements of so many Nobelists we have the privilege to honor.

See also: Statement by Dr. Joseph Bordogna On Awards for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry