Krugman's Nobel win

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"A funny thing happened to me this morning …", writes Paul Krugman on his blog today.

The Princeton economist and New York Times columnist was being coy. Turns out he won the Nobel Prize for his work on strategic trade theory and economic geography. Matt Yglesias wonders if Krugman is the first blogger to win a Nobel. Good question. I don't suppose Gary Becker counts, since his 1992 prize predates the Becker-Posner blog by nearly 12 years.

The Marginal Revolution guys are all over this. Here's Tyler Cowen's exhaustive summation of all things Krugman, and his colleague Alex Tabarrok has a useful primer on Krugman's contributions to trade theory. It's must-reading for those who know Krugman only for his left-leaning Times columns.

As Cowen notes, the timing of Krugman's award, like Al Gore's Peace Prize last year, is going to be interpreted as a public attack on the policies of the Bush administration. Krugman's politics aside, he's part of the growing trend (which includes Cowen and Tabarrok) of economists writing and blogging for a mass audience. As someone who's continually fascinated, but frequently perplexed by the dismal science, it's good to see this trend rewarded.

Then again, who cares about the Nobel Prize, anyway?