A major regional newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, reported Sunday that the university is investigating the matter. The Nobel laureate’s lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, said, “These allegations are factually incorrect and arose out of a professional rivalry.”
Dybvig’s lawyer told the AP that the university’s “Title IX” office, which investigates complaints of sexual harassment on campuses, has questioned the professor several times in recent weeks. “Title IX” is the name of the federal civil rights law that prohibits gender discrimination.
Bloomberg News reports it reviewed emails from the Title IX office that indicate at least three former students have received complaints since October.
Tore Ellingson, chair of the Nobel Prize Committee for Economic Sciences, told Bloomberg that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which oversees the Nobel Prize awarding process, had contacted the university to ensure it had a way to deal with the allegations fairly.
“Until the university decides that Dybvig did something wrong, I think we owe ourselves an unadulterated celebration of a great scientific achievement,” Ellingsen told Bloomberg. University spokeswoman Julie Florey said the university does not comment on specific cases, but takes sexual misconduct seriously and will investigate any allegations.
Dybvig, American economist Douglas W. Diamond and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in October for their research into bank failures. It is based on the experience of the Great Depression in the United States of 1929-1933.