The economics of climate change and tech innovation win U.S. pair a Nobel

NEWS IN BRIEF

SCIENCE & SOCIETY,CLIMATE,NOBELS 2018

Award comes as a U.N. panel urges policy makers to pursue technical advances to curb warming该奖项颁发之际，联合国一个专门小组敦促决策者追求技术进步，以遏制全球变暖

BY BRUCE BOWER 12:09PM, OCTOBER 8, 2018

ECON’S BIG PRIZE This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to William Nordhaus (left) and Paul Romer (right), two U.S. economists who have studied the relation of market systems to climate change and technological innovations.

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Two U.S. economists, William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, have received the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their efforts to untangle the economics of climate change and technological innovations.威廉·诺德豪斯(William Nordhaus)和保罗·罗默(Paul Romer)两位美国经济学家因致力于理清气候变化和技术创新的经济学关系而获得了2018年诺贝尔经济学奖。

Nordhaus and Romer “significantly broadened the scope of economic analysis by constructing models that explain how the market economy interacts with nature and knowledge,诺德豪斯和罗默“通过构建解释市场经济如何与自然和知识相互作用的模型，显著拓宽了经济分析的范围” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement announcing the awards on October 8.

Nordhaus, of Yale University, developed two computer simulations that weigh the costs and benefits of taking various steps to slow global warming. 耶鲁大学的诺德豪斯(Nordhaus)开发了两种计算机模拟，用来衡量采取各种措施减缓全球变暖的成本和收益。He has argued for taxes on the carbon content of fuels as an effective way to get businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.他主张对燃料的碳含量征税，作为让企业减少温室气体排放的有效途径。 The Environmental Protection Agency has used Nordhaus’ work, among others, to estimate the economic impacts of climate change.估计气候变化对经济的影响。

The announcement of Nordhaus’ award came just hours after a United Nations panel on climate change released a report predicting grim future effects of climate change and calling for more vigorous action by world governments to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial times 就在诺德豪斯获奖的几个小时前，联合国气候变化专门委员会发布了一份报告，预测未来气候变化的严重影响，并呼吁世界各国政府采取更有力的行动，将全球变暖控制在工业化前的1.5摄氏度以内(SN Online: 10/7/18). The new report cites Nordhaus’ work.

Romer, of New York University, expanded economic theory by arguing that government policies, such as funding for research and development, can stimulate technological advances. The presence or absence of such policies helps to explain national differences in wealth and economic growth, in Romer’s view.罗默认为，这些政策的存在或缺失有助于解释各国在财富和经济增长方面的差异

Romer’s ideas about policy making and technological innovation, first published in 1990, inspired a school of research that examines how business regulations and policies lead to new ideas and economic growth.罗默关于政策制定和技术创新的观点最早于1990年发表，它启发了一个研究学派，该学派研究商业法规和政策如何导致新思想和经济增长。

The pair will split the 9-million-Swedish-kronor (about $1 million) award.

Citations

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 2018. Nobelprize.org, October 8, 2018.