Jerusalem, October 10, 2002
Daniel Kahneman, a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey and a fellow of the Center for the Study of Rationality and Interactive Decision Theory at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the co-winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in economics.
He is the first Nobel winner in the sciences from Israel and the first graduate of the Hebrew University to receive the prize, as well as being the first Nobel winner who has been a staff member at the Hebrew University. Kahneman received his B.A. in psychology and mathematics from the Hebrew University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
He taught psychology at the Hebrew University from 1961 to 1978 before continuing his academic career at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley. He has been at Princeton University since 1993.
At age 68, Kahneman will share the $1 million prize with Vernon L. Smith of George Mason University in Virginia. He won the prize for his theory which utilizes insights from the field of psychology to analyze human decisions in the realm of economics. Specifically, he demonstrated how those decisions may systematically depart from those predicted by standard economic theory, which explained people’s behavior as based on a rational decision-making process.
Kahneman developed his theory years ago with a colleague at the Hebrew University, Psychology Prof. Amos Tversky, who died six years ago. Kahneman said he is accepting the prize on behalf of Tversky as well as himself.
A native of Tel Aviv, Kahneman is both an Israeli and U.S. citizen. He often visits Israel, where he has children and grandchildren.
Kahneman is the fifth Israeli chosen for the Nobel Prize. The previous winners were S.Y. Agnon in literature, and former Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
