Nobel Prize 2020: Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Stockholm:
American economists Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson won the Nobel Prize in economics on Monday for their work at commercial auctions, including hard-to-sell goods and services in traditional forms such as radio frequencies, the Nobel Committee said.
The duo were honored “for improvements in auction theory and inventions of new auction formats,” the jury said.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that the discoveries by Milgrom, 72, and Wilson, 83, “have benefited sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world,” it said in a statement.
The winners will share the prize of 10 million Swedish crowns (about 1.1 million dollars, 950,000 euros).
Last year, the honor went to French-American Esther Duflo, Indian-born American Abhijit Banerjee, and American Michael Kremer for their experimental work to alleviate poverty.
Even if it could be the most prestigious award an economist can hope to receive, the economics award has not achieved the same status as those originally chosen by Alfred Nobel in his will, which included medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace.
Instead, it was created through a donation from the Swedish central bank and has been called a “false Nobel” by critics.
The award closes the 2020 Nobel season, which has so far witnessed the peace prize awarded to the UN World Food Program.
Women have been more prevalent than usual this year, and American poet Louise Gluck won the prize for literature.
And French Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer Doudna became the first female duo to win a scientific Nobel on Wednesday, winning the chemistry prize for their discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 DNA-cutting “scissors.”
Winners would normally receive their Nobel from King Carlos XVI Gustav in a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, but the pandemic means it has been replaced by a televised ceremony showing the laureates receiving their awards in their home countries.
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