Econlinks: The Dale T. Mortensen Nobel edition

The most recent event under this heading is the Northwestern conference in the honor of Dale— with some very good and some not so good presentations…– featuring also some very (and some not so) entertaining speeches by former Mortensen students, co-authors, advisers etc, either at the dinner at the Northwestern Allen Center on Friday evening, or at the drinks & snacks session at Beverly and Dale’s splendid home (photo with Ija on their balcony) on Saturday evening. Read also this Northwestern Univ. article about the event. If you ask me, Guido Menzio had both the most interesting presentation (“Social Insurance for Frictional Wage Inequality”) and by far the best speech (let us call it “Guido, may the Force be with you!“); unfortunately, neither of them is available online, too bad if you were not there.
Now rewind: I have first mentioned about Dale’s Prize here, as some of us really were with Dale in Denmark when he got the magic phone call (this happened after I had correctly predicted Diamond, Mortensen and Pissarides winning the Prize in Economic Sciences, the day before). I’ll try to organize the following links on chronological order since.
Listen to the initial phone interview between the Nobel Foundation’s Adam Smith and Dale (you might have heard about the funny Adam Smith phone call to Ned Phelps’s home some years before; people are somewhat more prepared to Adam Smith calling them since…).
Here’s Dale’s answering machine message about the Prize to Beverly Mortensen: have your sound on as well– this is super funny.
I have uploaded on Flickr one of my short videoclips from the John Abowd seminar in Aarhus, at the Aarhus School of Business (ASB), Dep of Econ building, which started with champagne for Dale (unfortunately the sound seems to have gotten lost on the way…). All spontaneusly organized my myself, Valerie and Frederic: I think we managed quite well. I even made sure these visiting guys were not missing the start of the party (even if Shimer thought I am trying to trick him to get him to the seminar–duh…, Rob!…– when I called with the Dale-won-the-Nobel news)
The first Aarhus Univ journalist & photographer arrived for Dale (hallway of the ASB’s Frichshuset) and here’s a very first Dale video interview, just outside the Frichshuset, in which Dale tells the Danish reporter that yes, the Danes can also feel proud because of his winning the Prize.
After a first full day of interviews and photo sessions for Dale, the first dinner party takes place at one of my very favorite restaurant in Aarhus, Klassisk 65. Thanks to Valerie for helping me with the organization (we had planned the dinner at Klassisk for that day in any event; with Dale winning the Prize in that day, we had to try hard to include more people on the reservation list, and plan in much more detail). Watch the official TV2 documentary (very slow, be patient) from the place, including the by now famous Dale-sabring-the-champagne-bottle moment(s). I uploaded one of my own videoclips from Klassisk as well (again no sound).
A nice video capturing Dale’s returning to Chicago from Denmark, with family and the NU brass band welcoming him at O’Hare.
One advantage of being affiliated both with Aarhus and Northwestern is that I got to participate in all the Dale Mortensen-parties! Obviously Northwestern had to rise up to the occasion, and I think they managed well: there were several events, including two parties–one Department of Economics-wide, one NU-wide — organized in relation to Dale’s winning the Prize. Here’s the best moment from the first NU party, where, having heard of Dale’s champagne-sabring demonstration in Denmark, he was asked to confirm his skills also in Evanston— and I had the honor to assist (clip borrowed from Jeff Ely on Cheaptalk). Here’s a fantastic picture, the ultimate proof of Dale’s champagne-sabring mastery!
An article with a link to a clip containing the best moments from the NU-wide reception for Dale; Janice Eberly and Bob Coen in particular prepared wonderful speeches. Some other NU press articles with video- and photo- links: Dale winning the Nobel and first reactions from NU Econ faculty colleagues, summary of and photos from the celebrations in Stockholm; see also some other Dale Mortensen photos from Stockholm and not only, collected on the Nobel Foundation site.
There are also by-products of winning a Nobel prize, such as: getting a whisky bottle and– if, justifiably, you thought that was no big deal– a whole building named after him, at Aarhus University (with the participation at the opening, of the other Nobel Laureate at Aarhus, Jens Skou, and of the DK crown prince) ; a permanent parking spot and some other very visible (temporary) honors, at Northwestern University; hanging around with Mr. President– good, better (my own photo capture of the framed pictures adorning the walls in the Mortensens’ apartment).
You can also check out some more related pictures and videos that I collected (some belong to Aarhus University, some to Northwestern University, some to the Nobel Foundation, some are mine –including from the Econ Prize lectures, which I watched live, online, on my laptop, from Chicago– I tried to specify everywhere whom they belong to in order to observe copyright issues– comment on this post or contact me if you observe anything wrong or unclear in that sense) and uploaded on my Flickr acount.
Finally: the best way to learn (more) about last year’s Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is to browse through the corresponding pages on the Nobel Foundation’s website. There is a great wealth of material in there (and more will be uploaded in the future, including, e.g., autobiographies of the Laureates), such as informative articles– both brief and longer–, interviews, documentaries, photos etc. For instance, you can read what the 2010 Prize in Economic Sciences is about in a popular version for the larger audience (related, a “speed read” version; even an “illustrated” version); you can also go on and inspect the more detailed, technical, version with further references (or go through the concise three-page version by Rob Shimer); see also an interview with Per Krussell describing the work of the 2010 Econ Nobel Laureates; watch a documentary about the lives and work of the three Laureates; a video interview of the three Econ Prize winners with Adam Smith (including opinions about teaching and training their graduate students, I thought that was very informative!); watch the Econ Prize lectures of Mortensen, Diamond, Pissarides; the Banquet Speech of Dale (on behalf of the three Economics Prize winners) etc.

3 thoughts on “Econlinks: The Dale T. Mortensen Nobel edition”

Sebi Buhai says:

April 25, 2011 at 4:51 pm

@Nenicu> e parte din academe, nu? Si apropos, e sabie, nu palos. De asta ii zice "sabrare"…<br /><br />@DK economist> true, you are right, forgot about that perk :-). I have just found <a href="http://phd.au.dk/en/phdhouse/dalescafe/" rel="nofollow">this short description about Dale's Cafe on the AU site.</a>
Anonymous says:

April 25, 2011 at 11:53 am

There is even a Dale's Cafe at Aarhus University!<br />a Danish economist
Nnicu says:

April 25, 2011 at 7:17 am

Da maestre vaz ca nu va plingeti cu distractia! Musai prof si io de stiam ca tre' taiata sampania cu paloshu 😛

Comments are closed.

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