Paul Krugman
Facts
© The Nobel Foundation. Photo: U. Montan
Paul Krugman
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008
Born: 28 February 1953, New York, NY, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Prize motivation: “for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity”
Prize share: 1/1
Work
International trade has long been a central issue in economic science. The traditional theory posits that different countries have different circumstances, and therefore their people tend to produce different goods. Paul Krugman instead claimed in his 1979 theory that economies of scale mean that world trade is dominated by similar countries producing similar products. Economies of scale and reduced transport costs also explain why an increasing proportion of people live and work in cities.
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