According to the official website of the Nobel Prize, the Nobel Foundation has decided that the prize money for each Nobel Prize will increase by 1 million Swedish kronor (about 660,000 yuan) in 2023, which means that the winner will receive 11 million Swedish kronor (about 7.34 million yuan) in 2023.
This will be the highest prize amount in the history of the Nobel Prize in more than a hundred years.
On the centenary of the Nobel Prize in 2001, the prize amount reached SEK 10 million for the first time and continued until 2011. The financial crisis led to a shrinking of the Nobel Foundation's principal. In 2012, the Nobel Prize was reduced to SEK 8 million. In 2017, the prize amount was increased from SEK 8 million to 9 million and in 2020 to 10 million.
Regarding the increase in the prize, the Nobel Foundation said that by the end of 2022, the total investment capital market value of the foundation was 5.799 billion Swedish kronor (about 3.874 billion yuan). The foundation chose to increase the prize money because "it is financially feasible to do so."
The Nobel Prize Foundation is responsible for managing the property of Swedish explosives inventor Nobel (Alfred Nobel), in his will made in 1895, Nobel entrusted the foundation with an inheritance of 31.5 million Swedish kronor, from 1901 to the present, through two world wars and many economic crises, how did the Nobel Foundation manage Nobel's legacy and achieve a century of everlasting? Two researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University are trying to give an answer with their research.
According to the schedule, the list of Nobel Prize winners in 2023 will be announced from October 2. "Intellectual" will also enter the "Nobel Prize Golden Week" to bring readers more information about the field of natural sciences of the Nobel Prize.
The specific time of the 2023 Nobel Prize list will be announced:
October 2 – Physiology or Medicine Prize 11:30 CET (17:30 Beijing time)
October 3 – Physics Prize 11:45 CET (17:45 Beijing time)
October 4 – Chemistry Prize 11:45 CET (17:45 Beijing time)
October 5 – Literature Prize 13:00 CET (19:00 Beijing time)
6 October – Peace Prize 11 a.m. CET (17 a.m. Beijing time)
October 9 – Economics Prize 11:45 CET (17:45 Beijing time)
From the inside to the outside, from the individual to the organization, the all-round "beauty" of the Nobel institution makes the century-old Nobel Prize still youthful. What is even more amazing is that Mr. Nobel's estate donation of about SEK 31 million has not only been distributed for more than 100 years, but has also increased to 5.799 billion SEK today! And in nominal terms alone, the prize money awarded in 2015 alone (SEK 40 million) is enough to exhaust the original donation. So, how does the Nobel Foundation, as the financial steward of the Nobel Prize, manage Mr. Nobel's legacy, so that the money can continue to support the distribution of the prize money and increase in value?
One of the "three views" - keeping enough money
Young Nobel (Alfred Bernhard Nobel)
Source: WIki
Legacy donations are the initial source of the Nobel Foundation's investment principal. Mr. Nobel is not only a famous Swedish chemist, but also an engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, who holds 355 patents in his lifetime, and has established nearly 100 factories in 20 countries to form a global industrial empire. The French writer Hugo called "the richest man in Europe" left only a small amount of wealth to his family members after his death, and most of his realizable property was used to establish a fund to be invested and managed by the executor, and the annual investment income was paid in the form of bonuses to those who made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the previous year. The total net value of Mr. Nobel's estate is more than SEK 31 million, which is a huge financial foundation for the initiation and development of the Nobel Prize.
Investment income is a regular source of principal invested by the Nobel Foundation. The Nobel Foundation does not raise funds externally, so there is no external funding to supplement it. In order to prevent inflation from causing a long-term contraction of investment capital, it is necessary to form an intrinsic hematopoietic function of funds. According to the Nobel Foundation Charter (hereinafter referred to as the "Constitution"), each year the Foundation must include a part of the investment income in the principal amount of the investment. There are two ways to determine this amount, one is to multiply the inflation rate of the year by the market value of the fund, and the other is to directly transfer 10% of the total income of the year. For example, in 2012, the first option was adopted, where SEK 26 million was transferred to the principal to maintain the inflation-adjusted value of the fund, while in 2013, the second option was taken and SEK 13.2 million was transferred.
Tax exemptions are a hidden source of principal invested by the Nobel Foundation. At the beginning of its existence, the Nobel Foundation's investments faced a heavy tax burden, and for a long time, the Nobel Foundation was Stockholm's largest taxpayer. Fortunately, Sweden and the United States granted the nonprofit tax-exempt status in 1946 and 1953, respectively. In a sense, the tax exemption is equivalent to the government's annual donation of the principal to the Nobel Foundation. In addition, according to the Statutes, "if the laureate refuses to accept the Nobel Prize or does not cash the prize cheque as prescribed by the Board of Directors by October 1 of the following year, the prize money will be included in the principal of the Foundation." "If for some reason the prize is not awarded, the prize money will be retained until the following year, and if the prize cannot be awarded by that time, the prize money will be included in the principal of the foundation." This is some of the probable sources of the principal amount invested.
Despite the impact of shrinking principal, due to the huge start-up capital as the cornerstone, as well as the two-way protection of income repatriation (open source) and tax exemption (throttling), the investment capital of the Nobel Foundation has been preserved and has achieved growth beyond inflation in the long run. By the end of 2014, the market value of the Nobel Foundation's investments, including its own properties, had reached SEK 3.87 billion (about 3.1 billion yuan), a 226% increase in real value compared to its inception.
Nobel's will丨Source: nobelprize.org
The second of the "three views" - take care of money
Due to their special mission, many foreign foundations pay more attention to safety and stability when using the capital market to preserve and increase the value of assets. Early charters stipulated that the Nobel Foundation could only invest in fixed-income, secured or collateralized products such as bonds and loans. However, this overly conservative approach to managing money limits the growth of earnings, making it harder to pay out the Nobel Prize. The relaxation of the Swedish government in 1953 allowed the Nobel Foundation to freely invest in stocks and real estate, asset classes that were once off-limits. Driven by the double round of tax exemption and free investment policy, the Nobel Foundation's investment management has changed from passive to active, and successfully reversed the trend of impairment of investment funds, becoming a landmark change in its investment history.
In the 1980s, the Nobel Foundation had a good time to invest. The 1982-1999 stock bull market coincided with Stockholm's real estate boom, and the Nobel Foundation, which invested a lot of real estate in the area, made a lot of money. In 1986, the assets of the Ford Foundation, then the largest foundation in the United States, more than doubled from $2.8 billion (1970) to $4.7 billion, while the market value of the Nobel Foundation nearly fivefold during the same period. In 1987, the council transferred the vast majority of the foundation's real estate to a separate, publicly traded company Beväringen, and liquidated its shares in the company just before the property bubble burst in the early 90s. Stig Lammel, then CEO of the Nobel Foundation, not only identified real estate market trends, but also focused on diversifying investments around the world to reduce risk and explore investment growth points. He is responsible for investments in Sweden himself, while international investments are entrusted to external financial advisors, a combination of internal and external management that highlights the advantages of an increasingly complex investment environment.
In 2007, the Nobel Foundation invested 67% of its share in stocks, most of which were shares of European and American companies. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the fund's risk aversion to equity investment has become more obvious, and the investment ratio has basically remained at a level of just over 50%. The proportion of investment in stocks and bonds has shown a downward trend, and the Foundation's key investment areas have extended to high-yield alternative investments such as hedge funds and real estate with market trends. As shown in the chart below, as of the end of 2014, the Nobel Foundation's portfolio was broadly comprised of equities (55%), bonds (12%), and alternative (33%), and it is worth noting that hedge funds accounted for nearly 1/4. Although the Nobel Foundation's investment performance during the crisis was not optimistic, it has recovered slightly in the past two years, such as 16.4% and 11.8% in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The Nobel Foundation's main investment income continued to come from equities (26.6%, 2014), and private equity (16.7%, 2014) also yielded, with new convertible bond investments added at the end of May 2014 yielding an annualized rate of 16.7% at the end of the year.
Asset Allocation of the Nobel Foundation (December 31, 2014)
Author cartography
Reasonable asset allocation, global diversification, and alternative investment, the Nobel Foundation's investment management has withstood the test of the market, but there have been counterexamples. The little-known Wenner-Grenska Samfundet was also a Swedish foundation, founded in 1937 with donations from the Swedish industrialist and wealthy Axel Wenner-Gren and his wife. The foundation was founded in a very similar context to the Nobel Foundation, but the risky projects it invested, the strategy of the investment director was seriously misguided, resulting in fewer than a few million in assets that had been 40 million Swedish kronor, and its members were prosecuted from November 1973. It was predicted that if the foundation's assets were used for securities investments, the size of the assets at that time would exceed that of the Nobel Foundation.
The third of the "three views" - scattering quasi-wealth
The amount of the Nobel Prize shall be determined by the Board of Directors of the Foundation, and the amount of the individual prize shall be equal. Specifically, 10% of the net proceeds from the Nobel Foundation's investment are reinvested each year, and the remaining 90% is divided into five equal parts to the awarding institutions. After each institution receives the corresponding money, 25% is deducted as the award fee and the Nobel Institute's funds, and the remaining 75% is the amount of each Nobel Prize in that year. Over the past hundred years, the amount of Nobel Prize money has changed a lot. According to Nobel's last wish, the prize of about 150,000 Swedish kronor in 1901 was exactly equivalent to 20 years' salary of a professor at that time. The amount of the prize fluctuated until 1991, when the prize of SEK 6 million was comparable to the actual value of the first prize 90 years earlier.
According to Mr. Nobel's wishes, only the direct proceeds of the Foundation, namely interest and dividends, could be used for the Nobel Prize, but since 2000, the Nobel Foundation has been allowed to use the capital gains from the sale of assets to pay bonuses and cover daily expenses. On the centenary of the Nobel Prize in 2001, the prize amount reached SEK 10 million for the first time and continued until 2011. The financial crisis has led to a shrinking principal and dismal returns for the Nobel Foundation, but at the same time, the spending of the Nobel Foundation has increased year by year. Russ Heikenstein, the current CEO of the Nobel Foundation, said that the foundation could still last for three decades, but that the Nobel Prize is an eternal undertaking and "we should respond to it." Since 2012, the Nobel Prize has been reduced to SEK 8 million to reduce the loss of principal and ensure the sustainability of the prize. In addition, the Nobel Foundation has contingency reserve funds, even in the extreme case of not receiving investment income for two consecutive years, the foundation can still pay bonuses without having to use the principal.
In 1968, on the occasion of its 300th anniversary, the Riksbank donated a large sum to the Nobel Foundation and established the Alfred Nobel Swedbank Prize in Economics. The prize is not provided by the Nobel Foundation, but is sponsored annually by the Riksbank with the same amount of money as that year's Nobel Prize. Moreover, the Riksbank also needs to pay the Nobel Foundation an additional 65% of the prize amount of the year to cover the cost of selecting the winner of the Economics Prize. After the establishment of the Economics Prize, the Nobel Foundation decided not to add prizes affiliated with the Nobel name.
From the perspective of prize withdrawal, the Nobel Foundation checks in the following two aspects: First, strict bonus withdrawal rules and emergency reserves, so that the Foundation can formulate a reasonable and reliable amount of bonuses, which not only ensures the continuous award of the Nobel Prize, but also exempts from the use of principal. Second, unswervingly adhering to the original prize of the Nobel Prize, without increasing or decreasing, is not only to respect Mr. Nobel's last wishes, but also to prevent the dispersion of energy and financial resources caused by extraneous branches, thus ensuring the sustainability of the Nobel Prize itself.
In 1901, the first Nobel Prize ceremony
Held at the Old Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm丨Source: nobelprize.org
The road to sustainable funds
Endowments can be divided into two models, spending and perpetual. The principal of spending funds can be used up immediately or within a certain period of time, while the principal of perpetual funds cannot be used, but is used to invest to obtain income, and use the income for needs. The essence of the operation of the latter lies in the combination of strong principal, professional investment and reasonable expenditure to make the original capital continuously produce benefits.
Starting from Mr. Nobel's legacy, the Nobel Foundation has embarked on a positive path of sustainable funds around the "three views" of guarding finances, managing finances well, and dispersing accurate wealth. Keeping the money: Although the original fund is strong, it is an advantage, but only by not using the investment principal and preserving the actual value of the principal through annual income retention can it still have enough capital to generate wealth in the future. Rationalize finances: adjust investment strategies in a timely manner according to market conditions and policy trends, gradually shift from conservative and passive to active and active, tap new investment growth points, and continuously realize the appreciation of principal. Scattered wealth: Flexible bonus amounts and fixed award ranges make the outflow of foundation funds reasonable and controllable.
A century of uninterrupted operation has accumulated a brand for the Nobel Prize, and maintaining the economic lifeline of its operation is particularly important. It can be said that the sustainable asset management model has contributed to the successful operation of the Nobel Prize. This is also the management model adopted by many foreign university endowments. However, the operation mode of the Nobel Foundation and the University Endowment Fund is different: on the one hand, the Nobel Foundation does not raise funds externally, and its principal mainly comes from Nobel's one-time huge donation and continuous investment income retention, while the University Endowment Fund raises funds externally all year round, and its principal comes from continuous social donations and continuous investment income retention; On the other hand, the Nobel Foundation only provides funding for the Nobel Prize, while the University Endowment Fund supports the development of the university from many aspects such as overall finance, scientific research investment, faculty, and student scholarships. Therefore, the sustainability model of university endowments is more complex, and the results of the sustainable financial management model are more obvious, which needs more and deeper research.
Mainland foundations emerged in the 80s of the 20th century, and as of early February 2015, the total number of foundations has reached 4,268. In 2014, 24 people in mainland China donated a total of more than 100 million yuan a year, mostly concentrated in public welfare fields such as higher education. A large number of non-public foundations have emerged, especially those established by domestic enterprises, which usually have funds first, and then establish foundations in accordance with the purpose and charter. However, due to the short period of time, mainland foundations are still in the exploratory stage in terms of project operation and fund management. Learning from the Nobel Foundation's experience in sustainable financial management will help make the foundation of the mainland into an eternal cause, so that the donated funds can be effective year after year.
The Nobel Center is expected to start construction in 2017 and open in December 2019
It will include exhibitions, lectures and educational facilities related to the Nobel Prize
Source: Nobel Center
#时事热点头条说#