NYU Professor Awarded Noble Prize For Economic Sciences

WEST VILLAGE, NY — New York University professor Paul Romer has been awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selected Romer, along with Yale University economist William Nordhaus, Monday for their decades-long work on the relationship of climate change and technological innovation to economics.

The two men work independently, but the academy gifted them the $1 million prize together, noting that their work has "significantly broadened the scope of economic analysis by constructing models that explain how the market economy interacts with nature and knowledge," the academy said in a statement.

Romer, 62, was recognized for modeling methods — a way of predicting economic functions based on theory and data — for long-term economic growth, the academy said in its statement.

His most influential work was published in 1990 and laid the ground work for “endogenous growth theory,” which promotes the idea that technological development is fostered through deliberate policymaking choices, the academy noted.

Romer nearly missed the call that he had won the Noble Prize, which came just before 6 a.m., because he thought the call was a robocall. He plans to visit Ethiopia in the coming months, where he has projects set up, and celebrated the award by taking his girlfriend our to dinner.

New York University Professor Paul Romer (Photo courtesy of Spencer Platt/Getty Images)