Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service. I'm Ruth Alexander.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded jointly this week

to William Nordhaus and Paul Roma to find out more about their work.

I spoke to one of their biggest fans. Tim Haferd. Remember me?

Yeah, exactly. How are you?

Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you very much. How are you?

I'm pleased to be on the other side of the microphone.

I'll tell you all about two of my favourite economists.

William Nordhaus and Paul Roma were I think top of most people's lists to win it.

It still means this was a bit of a surprise because I think people hadn't

made a connection between their work. They didn't work together.

I think it makes perfect sense, actually.

Uh-huh. Why?

They both study growth and they both study really the invisible

products and consequences of growth. So, Nordhaus studies climate change

and the way that climate change interacts with the economy

and the way that policies that we might implement to deal with climate change,

how they might affect the economy.

So, you can answer questions like, should we levy a carbon tax?

Will that be too economically damaging? How many jobs will it cost?

Will it actually save the planet or not?

That's the focus of Nordhaus' modelling.

...