In order to save costs for an organization mindful of such concerns, here is an algorithm that should save on committee lunch and other fees related to the attribution of the JBC medal.
Step 1. Take all economics faculty at MIT (Economics, fiek Sloan) between 30 and 39.
Step 2. With probability 10 epsilon (a small parameter), add someone from Harvard in the same age category.
Step 3. With probability epsilon, add someone from Chicago or Stanford. Choose only ONE school, not both. This part is very important to guarantee the fairness of the procedure.
Step 4. Rank candidates according to their citation count. Discard the bottom 75% regardless of the quality of their research or publication record.
Step 5. Pick a winner at random in the remaining pool.
Step 6. Write an opinion piece explaining why the winner is the most deserving candidate below 40. This part is easy: no need for a large committee.
Observations and caveats:
1. Choose epsilon small enough to guarantee a high chance for MIT faculty but high enough that it looks like everyone (in places that count) has a chance.
2. Sometimes, the algorithm will select someone young at the expense of someone who is 39. Just ignore this and fiek the old guy.
3. If some non MIT faculty gets a the prize twice in a row, set epsilon to zero the next year.
4. In Step 6., the uniform lottery can be replaced by increasing the weight of minorities to capture the zeitgeist.
5. If committee members still want to have an expensive lunch, allow them to "exchange ideas" with less prestigious economists.