SWEDEN/USA: Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson win the 2007 Nobel prize for economics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday (October 15) the three had established "mechanism design theory", which looks at how well different institutions fare in allocating resources and whether government intervention is needed. Hurwicz, a Russian-born American citizen, is 90-years-old and the oldest-ever recipient of a Nobel prize. He initiated the mechanism design theory and it was further developed by Eric Maskin of Princeton University and Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago. The three economists will share a prize of 10 million Swedish crowns (1.57 million United States dollars). Maskin, reached by telephone at his home in New Jersey, said he was overwhelmed by the news. "I'm completely delighted. It's a thrill to be in their company," he said, referring to other economists with whom he won the coveted prize. The academy said mechanism design theory now plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science. The economics prize is not part of the original crop of Nobel Prizes set out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will. It was established in 1968 and first awarded in 1969 and is officially called The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

ITN Source | October 15, 2007

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