Professor emeritus Leonid Hurwicz shares the prize with two other Americans, Eric Maskin of Princeton and Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago.
“An emeritus professor of economics at the University of Minnesota shares the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with two other economists for developing a theory that helps explain situations in which markets work and others in which they don’t.”
Their theory, mechanism design theory also has applications in voting procedures and political science.
12 Reader Comments
1:22 pm
As a nerd, their research excites me. Can you say bus reading material?
1:51 pm
Also: The NY Times notes that the theory is also used to help determine when and where government regulation of the marketplace is necessary.
1:53 pm
Democrat politicians don’t need any nobel prize-winning economist to tell them when to regulate. They just seem to know by instinct that all human activities need to be regulated.
“I dont believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.”
— Ronald Reagan
2:00 pm
Can’t seem to find a Republican who isn’t preoccupied with Ronald Reagan these days.
Reagain this, Reagan that. We need a guy like Ronald Reagan and we just don’t have one.
2:06 pm
Rat…I was actually growing tired of the whole “Party of Lincoln” bit, so this is a welcome change.
2:14 pm
Call it the Party of Hollywood.
They’re the ones with an actor running for president — again.
2:27 pm
I am? Hell, I guess that explains why I woke up in a hotel in Des Moines.
I’m running for President, you say?. Not like on television, but for real, right?
Wow. No sh… President, huh? Which party am I in? Cause I can play eigther side. Where’s my script?
Hey, Iowans, have I ever told you how much I love ethanol?
2:50 pm
Hey, Fred, you forgot to ask them to give you some applause.
5:18 pm
“Democrat politicians don’t need any nobel prize-winning economist to tell them when to regulate.“
There’s a finely-tuned system in place, hooked deeply into arcane bits of economic indicators and public-mood polling data which lets them know precisely when it’s time to regulate. Cost them millions to develop, and runs off of two paralleled Crays.
Imagine their chagrin when they opened it up for servicing and found that the main program merely checked to make sure that the day in question ended in the letter “y”.
9:07 pm
I think GOP references to Reagan are less tired than DFL references to Wellstone.
Where can I find this guy’s work? I want to reads it.
9:11 pm
So, you hear those pretty often? How many times per week, would you say?
9:15 pm
Every time I’m on the fricking highway. Or drive by Franklin/Portland where they’re naming a housing complex after him.