The prize — officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — wasn't created by the prize founder, but it is considered to be part of the Nobel stable of awards.
The prize was created by Riksbanken, the Swedish central bank, in 1968, and the first winner was selected a year later. So far, 81 Nobel laureates in economic sciences have been awarded.
With the glory comes a 9 million-kronor ($918,000) cash award, a gold medal and a diploma.
Last week, six Nobel prizes were given — medicine, physics and chemistry plus two literature awards, and the coveted Peace Prize.
The literature prizes — one for 2018 and one 2019 —were given to Poland's Olga Tokarczuk and Austria's Peter Handke, after no prize was awarded last year due to sex-abuse allegations that rocked the Swedish Academy.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to end his country's two-decade border conflict with Eritrea.
All but the winner of the Peace Prize receive their awards on Dec. 10 — the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896 — in Stockholm. The winner of the Peace Prize receives the award in Oslo, Norway.