Robert Hall and Michael Woodford Awarded 2026 Nobel Prize

Research Associates Robert Hall and Michael Woodford have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their research on the "microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization." The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in announcing the prize, explained that they "have developed new macroeconomic models that have significantly improved our ability to implement effective stabilization policy" and "provided us with a stable theoretical foundation for the models that are now used by central banks and governments around the world."

The Academy also released a detailed account of the laureates' scientific contributions. 

Hall is the Robert and Carole McNeil Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a Professor of Economics, both emeritus, at Stanford University. He was the founding director of the NBER Economic Fluctuations and Growth (EFG) program, and he chaired the Business Cycle Dating Committee for more than three decades. He is affiliated with three NBER programs: EFG, Monetary Economics (ME), and Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. Woodford is the John Bates Clark Professor of Economics at Columbia University. He served as co-editor of the NBER Macroeconomics Annual. He is affiliated with the EFG and ME programs.  

With this year’s awards, 45 current or past NBER research affiliates, and an additional 7 current or past members of the NBER Board of Directors, have received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Affiliates awarded the prize are Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, 2025; Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, 2024; Claudia Goldin, 2023; Ben Bernanke and Douglas Diamond, 2022; Joshua Angrist, David Card, and Guido Imbens, 2021; Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, 2019; William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, 2018; Richard Thaler, 2017; Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström, 2016; Angus Deaton, 2015; Lars Hansen and Robert Shiller, 2013; Alvin Roth, 2012; Thomas Sargent, 2011; Peter Diamond, 2010; Paul Krugman, 2008; Finn Kydland, 2004; Robert F. Engle, 2003; Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2001; James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden, 2000; Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes, 1997;  and the late Christopher Sims, 2011, Dale Mortensen, 2010; Edward C. Prescott, 2004; Robert E. Lucas, Jr.; 1995 Robert W. Fogel, 1993; Gary S. Becker, 1992; George J. Stigler, 1982; Theodore W. Schultz, 1979; Milton Friedman, 1976; and Simon Kuznets, 1971. In addition to this group, the seven current or past NBER directors who have received the prize are: Joel Mokyr, 2025; George Akerlof, 2001; and the late William Vickrey, 1996; Douglass North, 1993; Robert Solow, 1987; James Tobin, 1981; and Paul Samuelson, 1970.