It is an error to think that the Nobel Prizes effortlessly represent the distillation of the historical hive mind of the invisible college of scientists distributed across the world; if that were the case, one could simply distribute awards according the highest citation counts and h-indexes, and do away with the rigmarole of nomination rules, committees and consultations, plus the elaborate press briefings and PR that surround the event. Both disciplinary dynamics and local context matter, and never more so than with the Bank of Sweden Prize.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 480