STOCKHOLM – On Monday morning, the final accolade in this year’s Nobel prize series will be declared, as organizers disclose the recipient(s) of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

The previous year’s prize recognized economists Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson for their research into the wealth disparity among nations, highlighting that open and free societies tend to thrive more economically.

Formally named the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the prize was founded in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank to honor Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish entrepreneur and inventor of dynamite, who also established the five original Nobel Prizes.

Since then, it has been awarded 56 times to a total of 96 laureates. Only three of the winners before Monday’s announcement were women.

While some purists argue that the economics prize isn’t technically a Nobel Prize, it is nonetheless awarded alongside the other prizes on December 10th, marking the day of Nobel’s passing in 1896.

Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

___

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.