Roberto Alazar? Pasi Kuoppamaki? Richard M. Scammon? Ben Wattenberg? John Kenneth Galbraith? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Economics is a complex and contentious discipline. Sharp disagreements between economists inspired the following quip:
Economics is the only field in which two people can share a Nobel Prize for saying opposing things.
Would you please help me to trace this expression?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match found by QI appeared in a message posted to the Usenet newsgroup sci.econ in May 1995. No attribution was given for the quip; hence, the creator remains anonymous. The message contained fourteen miscellaneous jokes about economics. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Economics is the only field in which two people can get a Nobel Prize for saying exactly the opposite thing.
Finnish economist Pasi Kuoppamaki replied to this Usenet message by stating that the jokes had been copied from a webpage of economics jokes which he maintained at the website of ETLA – Elinkeinoelämän tutkimuslaitos (Finnish Institute of Business Research). Currently, the webpage does not exist. Kuoppamaki gave this description:2
The collection is a result of contributions from many people round the world (though mostly US) to whom I owe a big thanks.
In November 1995 the “San Francisco Chronicle” of California published a story discussing the webpage of economics jokes maintained by Kuoppamaki. The article reprinted the quip without attribution:3
“Economics is the only field in which two people can get a Nobel Prize for saying exactly the opposite thing.”
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
A thematic precursor appeared in several U.S. newspapers in 1970 within an article4 by political scientists Richard M. Scammon and Ben Wattenberg who discussed U.S. elections:5
It is tempting to say that American politics and elections are at once so inexact and so complex that they are perhaps the only field of human activity in which all the stated opinions are correct and so are their opposites. One observer has described this as the Political Law of Simultaneous But Contrary Truths.
That is not quite right, or not always right. But it is at least generally so that for each stated correct opinion there is someone who is supposed to know. what he is talking about who is saying exactly the opposite.
In 1974 Gunnar Myrdal and Friedrich von Hayek were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. Their viewpoints were diametrically opposed to one another. Myrdal favored socialist central planning, and Von Hayek favored free markets with minimal constraints.
Apparently, this event eventually led to the creation of the joke, but it did not appear immediately. “Time” magazine printed the following in October 1974:6
In a pluralistic world, there is room for such disparate thinkers as Myrdal and Von Hayek and for the opposite courses to human fulfillment that they espouse. By honoring these two economists simultaneously, the Swedish Academy has cast a quiet vote for the world of diversity.
In January 1975 “Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs” printed the following:7
I assume that the prize is proffered in recognition of notable advances in economic science. But since Myrdal and Hayek have been advancing in opposite directions for the past fifty years, this leaves the committee with some explaining to do. …
Myrdal has spent his life blasting the free market as a snare and a delusion, while Hayek has spent his blasting all attempts to manage the free market as the work of the devil. The conclusion ineluctably follows that the Nobel committee is collectively insane.
In 1992 the “Star Tribune” of Minneapolis, Minnesota published an article presenting the opinions of linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky including the following item:8
On economics as a social science and especially the theory that a free market is the best policy:
“Economics is the only field in the history of the human race in which the theory is 100 percent refuted, all the time, and no one cares.”
In May 1995 the quip appeared within a message posted to the Usenet newsgroup sci.econ as mentioned previously. The quip was reprinted from a webpage maintained by Finnish economist Pasi Kuoppamaki. No attribution was specified:9
Economics is the only field in which two people can get a Nobel Prize for saying exactly the opposite thing.
In 1997 the collection “More Wit” compiled by Des MacHale included the following item together with an attribution. The phrasing was different:10
Economics is the only field in which two people can share a Nobel Prize for saying opposing things.
Roberto Alazar
In 1998 “Charlatans or Saviours?: Economists and the British Economy from Marshall to Meade” by Roger Middleton printed the following as an epigraph to the first chapter:11
Economics is the only field in which two people can get a Nobel Prize for saying exactly the opposite thing.
Also, in 1998 the quip appeared in the “Instructor’s Manual” by Thomas J. Adams for the third edition of the textbook “Economics” by David C. Colander:12
LAUGHER CURVE
Economics is the only field in which two people can share a Nobel Prize for saying opposing things.
Specifically, Gunnar Myrdahl and Friedrich S. Hayek shared one.
Also, in 1998 “The Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and Selling Predictions” by William A. Sherden contained the following passage:13
Neoclassicists believe in laissez-faire commerce and a minimal role for government, while Marxist economists believe in controlled economies and are concerned about class struggles. These beliefs are so varied and conflicting that economics is jokingly said to be the only field in which two people can get a Nobel Prize for saying exactly the opposite thing. And there is truth to the joke: James Tobin, who won a Nobel Prize in 1981, believes that international capital flows are too volatile and should be restricted, while Robert Lucas, who won the Nobel Prize in 1995, believes that markets should be free from government intervention.
In 2007 “On the One Hand: The Economist’s Joke Book” edited by Jeff Thredgold included this item without attribution:14
Economics is the only field in which two people can receive a Nobel Prize for saying exactly the opposite thing.
In 2012 a newspaper in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada printed the following in which the quip was credited to another prominent economist:15
Any comparison of Harper’s and McGuinty’s current fiscal vagueness with the views of leading economists should be prefaced by a John Kenneth Galbraith’s caution — “economics is the only field in which two people can share a Nobel Prize for saying opposing things — and they can both be wrong.”
In 2019 the journal “The American Economist” printed an instance of the quip. The following passage referred to 1972 when it should have referred to 1974:16
Economics joins literature and peace as the Nobel fields that have generated the most controversy. First, as a well-known quip has it, “economics is the only field in which two people can share a Nobel Prize for saying opposing things.” The 1972 Prizes awarded to Myrdal and Hayek spring to mind, as would the 2013 awards to Fama and Shiller.
In conclusion, the earliest match in May 1995 did not have an attribution; hence, the quip remains anonymous. The event that probably inspired the joke occurred in 1974 when Gunnar Myrdal and Friedrich von Hayek shared the Nobel Prize in Economics. Thus, future researchers may discover earlier citations.
Image Notes: Illustration of a graph showing lines heading downward and upward from Mediamodifier at Pixabay.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Peggy Lunn, Patricia Sutherland, and Bryce McBride whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: May 18, 1995, 3:00:00 AM, Newsgroup: sci.econ, From: Robin Hood, Subject: Economics Jokes. (Google Groups Search; Accessed August 25, 2023) link ↩︎
- Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: May 19, 1995, 3:00:00 AM, Newsgroup: sci.econ, From: Pasi Kuoppamaki, Subject: Economics Jokes. (Google Groups Search; Accessed July 8, 20235) link ↩︎
- 1995 November 7, San Francisco Chronicle, Economists Take Their Views Lightly by Jonathan Marshall (Chronicle Economics Editor), Quote Page C4, Column 2, San Francisco, California. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1970 October 18, Providence Sunday Journal, A New and Incisive Look at U.S. Politics, Quote Page N1, Column 2, Providence, Rhode Island. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1970 October 18, The Sunday Sun, Vote watchers see new ‘Tidal Era’ ahead in U.S. by Richard M. Scammon and Ben J. Wattenberg, Quote Page 54, Column 2, Lowell, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1974 October 21, Time, Article: HONORS: Two for the Prize, Time, Inc., New York. (Accessed content.time.com on July 8, 2025) link ↩︎
- 1975 January / February, Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs, Volume 17, Number 6, Article: FROM THE EDITOR: The Economic Consequences of Friedrich A. von Hayek, Author: MES, Quote Page 3, Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. (JSTOR) link ↩︎
- 1992 April 2, Star Tribune, The media: Propaganda agents for corporate elite? by Eric Black (Staff Writer), Quote Page 4A, Column 3, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: May 18, 1995, 3:00:00 AM, Newsgroup: sci.econ, From: Robin Hood, Subject: Economics Jokes. (Google Groups Search; Accessed August 25, 2023) link ↩︎
- 1997, More Wit, Compiled by Des MacHale, Chapter: Business and Money, Quote Page 13, PRION, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1998, Charlatans or Saviours?: Economists and the British Economy from Marshall to Meade by Roger Middleton, Chapter 1: Introduction, Quote Page 1, Edwar Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1998, Instructor’s Manual by Thomas J. Adams (Sacramento City College), Instructor’s Manual to Accompany Economics (Third Edition) by David C. Colander, Chapter 14: Inflation and Its Relationship to Unemployment and Growth, Quote Page 145, Irwin McGraw-Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1998, The Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and Selling Predictions by William A. Sherden, Chapter 3: The Dismal Scientists, Quote Page 61, John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2007 Copyright, On the One Hand: The Economist’s Joke Book, Edited by Jeff Thredgold, Third Edition, Quote Page 11, Thredgold Economic Associates, Learfield, Utah. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2012 January 9, The Sun Times, Public austerity won’t save economy by R. Michael Warren (CEO of the Warren Group), Quote Page A5, Column 2 and 3, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2019 October, The American Economist, Volume 64, Number 2, The Nobel Prize in Economics Turns 50 by Allen R. Sanderson and John J. Siegfried, Start Page 167, Quote Page 170, Sage Publications, Inc. (JSTOR) link ↩︎