Auctions are everywhere and affect our daily lives, the Nobel committee said in its statement, adding that “this year’s laureates in economics, Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, have improved auction theory and invented new auction formats, benefiting sellers, buyers and contributors around the world. ”
The award culminates a week of Nobel prizes and is technically known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Since its inception in 1969, it has been awarded 52 times and is now widely considered one of the Nobel Prizes.
In explaining the achievements of the Nobel laureates, the committee noted that Wilson’s work showed why rational bidders tend to place bids below their best estimate of common value: they are concerned about the winner’s curse, that is, paying too much and lose. Meanwhile, Milgrom formulated a more general theory of auctions that allows not only common values, but also private values that vary from bidder to bidder.
“This year’s economics laureates Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson not only clarified how auctions work and why bidders behave in certain ways, but used their theoretical insights to invent entirely new auction formats for sale. of goods and services, “said the Committee.
Last year’s award went to two researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee and his wife Esther Duflo and a third researcher from Harvard University – for their pioneering research on efforts to reduce global poverty.
The prestigious award comes with a cash prize of 10 million crowns ($ 1.1 million) and a gold medal.
On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the physiology and medicine prize for discovering the hepatitis C virus that devastates the liver. Tuesday’s physics award honored advances in understanding the mysteries of cosmic black holes, and Wednesday’s chemistry award went to the scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool.
The literature prize was awarded to American poet Louise Gluck on Thursday for her “sincere and uncompromising” work. The World Food Program won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its effort to combat hunger around the world.
(With inputs from agencies)
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