Indian-American economist wins 'Baby Nobel'

A young Indian-American economist from the Harvard University, whose pioneering work was cited by US President Barack Obama in his last year's State of the Union Address, has won the prestigious John Bates Clark medal, often described as the 'Baby Nobel'.

Delhi-born Raj Chetty, a professor in the Department of Economy at the Harvard University since 2009, has been declared the winner of this year's award.

The John Bates Clark medal is awarded to an American economist under the age of 40 who is adjudged to have made a "significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge".

The medal is widely regarded as one of the field's most prestigious awards, perhaps second only to the Nobel in economic science.

33-year-old Chetty is the first person of Indian-origin to win this award.

"Raj Chetty is an influential young economist working on tax policy, social insurance, and education policy," the American Economic Association Honors and Awards Committee said.

The awards committee said Chetty is a remarkably productive economist whose contributions assimilate evidence using a variety of methodological perspectives to shed new light on important public policy questions.

"His work extends basic price theory by incorporating behavioral and psychological aspects of economic behaviour; reconciles results from different branches of economics, whether between structural and reduced form economists, or among previously inconsistent estimates of key parameters such as labour supply elasticities; and employs data that are uniquely suited to answer otherwise unanswerable questions," the awards committee said.

His pioneering work in education was cited by President Obama, in his last year's State of the Union Address.

"He has established himself in a few short years as arguably the best applied macro-economist of his generation," the awards committee said.

Chetty graduated from the Harvard University in 2000 and completed his PhD from the same university in 2003.

The Clark Medal was awarded biennially from 1947-2009, but from 2010 onwards it has been awarded annually.

The previous winners of this prestigious award include the likes of Paul Krugman, Paul Samuelson, Milton Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz - all Nobel laureates.

The award is called Baby Noble, as every third winner one of this award has gone on to bag the Nobel award.