Dear NBER Board Members, Researchers, and Staff -
I hope that you will join me in congratulating Research Associate
Alvin Roth, who today shared the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
with Lloyd Shapley for their work on "the theory of stable allocations
and the practice of market design." The prize citation explains that
this year's award is for work on "a central economic problem: how to
match different agents as well as possible. 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?"
This year's award recognizes both a conceptual advance in cooperative
game theory and a rich set of applications of that theory to solve
important problems of market design.
Al is currently the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business
Administration at Harvard University. At the end of this year, he will
move to emeritus rank at Harvard, and join the Stanford Economics
Department. He has been a Research Associate in the NBER's Labor
Studies Program since 1999, and he is an active participant in the
Market Design Working Group. Many of Al's papers on matching markets
have appeared in the NBER working paper series.
All best wishes.
Jim
Received on Mon Oct 15 2012 - 08:45:38 EDT
