Paul Krugman Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2004

Paul Robin Krugman (Albany, USA, 1953), 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize Laureate in Economic Sciences, graduated from Yale in 1974 and subsequently earned his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has taught at Yale, MIT, the London School of Economics, Stanford and Princeton.

A 1974 Yale graduate and MIT doctor, he is now professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, having previously held key academic posts at both MIT and Stanford. He is the author of 20 books - including Pop Internationalism, Geography and Trade, and Peddling Prosperity- and over two hundred articles, which have been published in the most prestigious specialised press. He is also a columnist for the New York Times, Fortune and Slate Magazine. Journalists and colleagues alike have dubbed him "the great critic" for his perceptive, incisive analyses of in-vogue theory, fatalism, and ideas within his profession that are shrouded in obscure language.

His reputation stems from academic work on finance and international trade, where he has forged the concepts of the "new trade theory" and "new economic geography". The American Economic Association awarded him its John Bates Clark Medal in 1991 in acknowledgement of his work. This is awarded every other year to the economist under the age of forty who has made a significant contribution to economic knowledge.