Economist who slated colleagues’ work is tipped for Nobel

Ariel Rubinstein, who says economics lacks common sense, heads list of likely winners

An economics professor who has trashed the work of his colleagues and their ability to forecast how economies will develop is one of the frontrunners for the Nobel Memorial prize for economics.

Ariel Rubinstein, who teaches game theory at Tel Aviv University and New York University, has become notorious for claiming that economics lacks common sense and too often pursues research with little application to the real world.