[h=3]By JOSH MITCHELL[/h]Two American economists won the Nobel Prize in economics Monday for their research into how to match different actors in given markets, such as job seekers with employers and patients with donated kidneys.
Alvin Roth of Harvard University and Lloyd Shapley of the University of California Los Angeles won the prize "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
[h=3]Real Time Economics[/h]Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were lauded for their research on how to match different agents in markets, such as job seekers with employers. Find out more about their work in this Real Time Econ post.
"This year's Prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents as well as possible," the academy said in a statement. "For example, students have to be matched with schools, and donors of human organs with patients in need of a transplant. How can such matching be accomplished as efficiently as possible? What methods are beneficial to what groups? The prize rewards two scholars who have answered these questions on a journey from abstract theory on stable allocations to practical design of market institutions."
The academy said the researchers worked independently rather than together, but that the "combination of Shapley's basic theory and Roth's empirical investigations, experiments and practical design has generated a flourishing field of research and improved the performance of many markets."
The prize is formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was the last of the 2012 Nobel awards to be announced.
It's not technically a Nobel Prize, because unlike the five other awards it wasn't established in the will of Mr. Nobel, a Swedish industrialist also known for inventing dynamite.
The economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank in Nobel's memory in 1968, and has been handed out with the other prizes ever since. Each award is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million.
Write to Josh Mitchell at [email protected]
Alvin Roth of Harvard University and Lloyd Shapley of the University of California Los Angeles won the prize "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
[h=3]Real Time Economics[/h]Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were lauded for their research on how to match different agents in markets, such as job seekers with employers. Find out more about their work in this Real Time Econ post.
"This year's Prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents as well as possible," the academy said in a statement. "For example, students have to be matched with schools, and donors of human organs with patients in need of a transplant. How can such matching be accomplished as efficiently as possible? What methods are beneficial to what groups? The prize rewards two scholars who have answered these questions on a journey from abstract theory on stable allocations to practical design of market institutions."
The academy said the researchers worked independently rather than together, but that the "combination of Shapley's basic theory and Roth's empirical investigations, experiments and practical design has generated a flourishing field of research and improved the performance of many markets."
The prize is formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was the last of the 2012 Nobel awards to be announced.
It's not technically a Nobel Prize, because unlike the five other awards it wasn't established in the will of Mr. Nobel, a Swedish industrialist also known for inventing dynamite.
The economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank in Nobel's memory in 1968, and has been handed out with the other prizes ever since. Each award is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million.
Write to Josh Mitchell at [email protected]