The Manhattan Institute Mourns 2020 Hayek Book Prize Winner Alberto Alesina

NEW YORK, NY — Last week, The Manhattan Institute announced Alberto Alesina, Carlo Favero, and Francesco Giavazzi as this year’s winners of the Hayek Book Prize for their book Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn’t.

Sadly, Alesina passed away suddenly on Saturday, May 23, and the Manhattan Institute offers its condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. Professor Alesina—along with his co-authors—joins a list of esteemed past Hayek Book Prize winners. It is our hope that his legacy will live on through this award and that his vital work and wisdom will find the broadest audience.

Hayek Book Prize Jury Chair Amity Shlaes and other jurors also share their condolences:

“Professor Alesina not only contributed to economics, he contributed to the broader economic community, mending rifts and building comity in an era of division and calumny.” – Amity Shlaes, Jury Chair

“Alberto Alesina will be sorely missed by economists and anyone interested in good public policy. His research and writing on the political economy of fiscal policy was highly original and influential.” – Professor John Taylor, Juror

“Alberto Alesina was prolific, always doing work that featured a combination of depth and relevance too-seldom achieved by modern-day economists. With increasing numbers of economists now analyzing data without understanding the economic processes that generate these data, Alesina's death is especially tragic.” – Professor Don Boudreaux, Juror

Details on the annual Hayek Lecture will be forthcoming. 

About the Hayek Lecture and Book Prize

Political philosopher and Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek, author of groundbreaking works such as The Road to Serfdom and The Constitution of Liberty, was the key figure in the twentieth century revival of classical liberalism. He was also a formative influence on the Manhattan Institute. When our founder, Sir Antony Fisher, asked how best to reverse the erosion of freedom, Hayek advised him not to begin with politics per se but to fight first on the battlefield of ideas. The Hayek Lecture and Prize affirm and celebrate this mission.

***

In Memoriam: Alberto Alesina

“Professor Alesina not only contributed to economics, he contributed to the broader economic community, mending rifts and building comity in an era of division and calumny." – Amity Shlaes, Hayek Book Prize Jury Chair

“Alberto Alesina, who died of a heart attack yesterday while hiking in the mountains, will be sorely missed by economists and anyone interested in good public policy. His research and writing on the political economy of fiscal policy was highly original and influential.  He first pointed out the glaring difference between actual government deficits and what good economics said was optimal in his classic paper with Guido Tabellini published 30 years ago.

But he did not stop there. He took on the tough political arguments needed to address the problem with many contributions ranging from his paper published in the Handbook of Macroeconomics with Andrea Passalacqua to his recent book Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn’t with Carlo Favero, and Francesco Giavazzi which won the Manhattan Institute’s Hayek Book Prize for its focus on the importance of economic and individual freedom.

Alberto showed that efforts to reduce large government deficits—an issue to be faced by us all in the upcoming years following the Coronavirus pandemic—with properly-designed tax and spending policy can raise economic growth without causing recession. His carefully-explained lessons and research will be of great help to us for many years into the future.” – Professor John Taylor, Hayek Book Prize Juror

“Alberto Alesina was prolific, always doing work that featured a combination of depth and relevance too-seldom achieved by modern-day economists. Especially important is his pioneering research on fiscal austerity, which shows that fiscal-adjustment packages made up mostly of spending cuts are far more likely than are packages made up mostly of tax hikes to reduce the ratio of debt to GDP. Key to his brilliance was his skill at analyzing data always with the lens of sound and straightforward economic theory. With increasing numbers of economists now analyzing data without understanding the economic processes that generate these data, Alesina's death is especially tragic.” – Professor Don Boudreaux, Hayek Book Prize Juror