János Kornai

Awards

Russian award for János Kornai

János Kornai, Professor of Economics Emeritus of Harvard University and Collegium Budapest, has been awarded the Leontief Medal. The distinguished academic recognition is named after Nobel laureate Russian-born American economist Wassily Leontief, the creator of input-output analysis. The Leontief Medal is awarded to several Russian and one international economist annually by the Leontief Centre in St. Petersburg, on the recommendation of an international committee. Recent awardees include late Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar, American Nobel laureates Robert Solow and Lawrence Klein, and Leszek Balcerowicz, the first Polish finance minister after the change of system. Professor Kornai received the Leontief Medal in St. Petersburg at the February 13 ceremony, where the influence of his work on the views of Russian economists was emphasized in the laudation speeches. “Kornai’s 1980 book Economics of Shortage opened the eyes of Russian economists,” as one of the speakers pointed out. After receiving the medal Janos Kornai gave a talk on “Leontief, Mathematical Planning: Dreams and Reality.”

János Kornai receives highest Hungarian state decoration

March the 15th, the Hungarian national holiday, is the traditional occasion when the Hungarian president awards state decorations in the building of the Hungarian parliament. This year the highest state decoration, the Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, was awarded to János Kornai, Allie S. Freed Professor of Economics Emeritus of Harvard University and Permanent Fellow Emeritus of Collegium Budapest. The official announcement emphasizes "his life achievement and internationally acknowledged results in researching the theory and performance of economic systems."