1. Prediction Markets

2a. InTrade has just opened some Nobel prediction markets —see under “current events”.

2b. Inkling Markets – Which economist will receive the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics (a.k.a. the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences)?

Previously: Will Chicago get the Olympics? Don’t bet on it. Too risky.

Stay away from these markets where the intention is to divine the decision of a close, opaque group. It is impossible. No good information leaks out.

Previously: The market participants did not possess a sufficient level of information completeness to arrive at the correct prediction.

2. Bookmakers

Ladbrokes’s probabilities (odds) for the 2009 Nobel prize in economics:

Eugene Fama 2/1
Paul Romer 4/1
Ernst Fehr 6/1
Kenneth R. French 6/1
William Nordhaus 6/1
Robert Barro 7/1
Matthew J Rabin 8/1
Jean Tirole 9/1
Martin Weitzman 9/1
Chris Pissarides 10/1
Dale T Mortensen 10/1
Xavier Sala-i-Martin 10/1
Avinash Dixit 14/1
Jagdish N. Bhagwati 14/1
Robert Schiller [sic] 14/1
William Baumol 16/1
Martin S. Feldstein 20/1
Christopher Sims 25/1
Lars P. Hansen 25/1
Nancy Stokey 25/1
Peter A Diamond 25/1
Thomas J. Sargent 25/1
Dale Jorgenson 33/1
Paul Milgrom 33/1
Oliver Hart 40/1
Bengt R Holmstrom 50/1
Elhanan Helpman 50/1
Ellinor Ostrom 50/1
Gene M Grossman 50/1
Karl-Goran Maler 50/1
Oliver Williamson 50/1
Robert B Wilson 50/1

3. Betting Pools

Here is the betting in the Nobel pool at Harvard:

Robert Barro -10%
John Taylor – 8%
Paul Milgrom – 8%
Jean Tirole – 6%
Oliver Williamson – 6%
Martin Weitzman – 6%
Eugene Fama – 5%
Richard Thaler – 5%
Lars Hansen – 4%
Paul Romer – 4%

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UPDATE: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2009 to Elinor Ostrom “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons” and Oliver E. Williamson “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm”.