Nobel Incentives

From EclectEcon: "I get the sense that everyone but economists thinks trade is bad....Perhaps the next Nobel prize in economics should go to someone who comes up with a presentation of the gains from trade that is super-effective in countering the anti-trade rhetoric of special interests. So far economists have not succeeded with the general public."

Economists respond to incentives. If the Nobel Prize committee announced that it really would give its award to "someone who comes up with a presentation of the gains from trade that is super-effective" then I bet thousands of economists would take up the call. And if one of us succeeded the world might be made hundreds of billions of dollars richer.