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Tiny Cyprus, with a population of a little more than 1 million nationals, leads the per capita ranking of Nobel Prizes for economics (the average value is given by the red line in the chart). Such a performance appeared, in a not far-away past, to be in tune with the apparent prosperity of Cyprus' economy, capable of delivering enviable growth. The aftermath of the 2008 global financial meltdown exposed the sad reality. Cyprus' performance was due to a bag of less than palatable tricks including exportable services as a fiscal safe haven, and an offer of dubious financial services.
That was until 2012, when the whole set up collapsed. The republic plunged into a deep financial crisis and found itself at the brink of an imminent bankruptcy. An emergency foreign aid plan avoided the crash, but it placed the State under a de-facto
European Union protectorate rule.
On this occasion, Cyprus had the infamous privilege of inaugurating legislation allowing European financial authorities to force bank account holders to rescue the very banks that had ripped them off.
It should be noted that the medicine chosen by the European masters and the Cypriot power clique to try and restore the country's finances totally ignored, nay, flew in the face of the warnings and recommendations by Christopher Pissarides, the Cypriot Nobel prize winner. According to him, the only path to salvation should consist of throwing overboard the Euro currency. But that would amount to subvert the ordoliberal government of the European Union, something that the latter could never accept. Nobelized or not nobelized, heretics should be silenced, at least ignored.
Norway too, another small country, delivers an outstanding performance by the per capita metric. It is debatable though whether Norway's economic performance, definitely brighter than Cyprus', should be credited to the brainpower of its economists — the country's oil and fishing resources are more likely to deserve the credit.
Take a look at the complete list of Nobel prizes for economics
| Country ¹ | Number | Population 2023 | Per capita |
|---|---|---|---|
| (thousands) | (number÷million×100) | ||
| Canada | 2 | 38.7 | 5.2 |
| Cyprus | 1 | 1.2 | 81.2 |
| Finland | 1 | 5.6 | 18.0 |
| France | 4 | 65.7 | 6.1 |
| Germany | 1 | 83.8 | 1.2 |
| India | 1 | 1419.7 | 0.1 |
| Israel | 3 | 9.1 | 33.1 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 17.2 | 11.6 |
| Norway | 3 | 5.6 | 54.0 |
| Russia | 2 | 145.6 | 1.4 |
| Sweden | 2 | 10.3 | 19.5 |
| United Kingdom | 10 | 68.8 | 14.5 |
| United States | 67 | 336.7 | 19.9 |
| Total | 99 | ||
| Median | 14.5 | ||
| Average | 20.4 | ||
| ¹ Double nationals are counted twice, once for each nationality. Former Soviet Union appears as Russia. | |||
Sources: Nobelprize and UN Population Division