Erik Maskin
Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences 2007
Adam University Professor, Harvard University, Cambridge, Usa
Co-reason for the prize:
for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory
Main Topics:
mechanism design, income inequality, theory of voting/ comparing different voting systems, theory of coalition formation, theory of repeated games, and the pros and cons of intellectual property rights.
Mechanism design theory plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science today. It takes into account information about individual preferences and available production technologies usually dispersed among many actors who may use their private information to further their own interests.
Professional Profile:
Eric Maskin is Adams University Professor at Harvard. He received the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (with L. Hurwicz and R. Myerson) for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory. He also has made contributions to game theory, contract theory, social choice theory, political economy, and other areas of economics. He received his A.B. and Ph.D from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge University. He was a faculty member at MIT from 1977-1984, Harvard from 1985-2000, and the Institute for Advanced Study from 2000-2011. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 2012.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, the European Economic Association, the Royal Spanish Academy of Economics and Finance, and the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory.
He is an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge. He is an honorary professor of six universities and the recipient of ten honorary doctorates.
Among other prizes, he has received the Kempe Award in environmental economics (with P. Dasgupta), the EFR-Business Week Award, the Grande Médaille from both the cities of Marseille and Toulouse, the Harvard Centennial Medal, the Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation International Award in Economics, the Louise Blouin Foundation Award, the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize, and the James Joyce Award. He has served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Economics Letters, and the Economic Theory Monograph Series (World Scientific Publishing) and as associate or advisory editor of several other journals.
He is on advisory boards for the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation, the Higher School of Economics (Moscow), the Center for Rationality (Hebrew University), the Santa Fe Institute, the Solvay School of Economics (Free University of Brussels), the Toulouse School of Economics, and the World Bank. He is a past president of the Econometric Society and the Game Theory Society. He is the director of the Jerusalem Summer School in Economic Theory.
Education:
- A.B. in Mathematics, Harvard University, 1972
- A.M. in Applied Mathematics, Harvard University, 1974
- Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Harvard University, 1976
- Master degree. M.A. in Economics (ad honorem), Cambridge University, 1977
Selected Works:
- Eric Maskin e András Simonovits (ed), PLANNING SHORTAGE, AND TRANSFORMATION: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JÁNOS KORNAI. MIT Press
- Eric S. Maskin (ed), RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN GAME THEORY. Edward Elgar Publishing
- Eric Maskin. IMPLEMENTATION SOCIAL SOURCE. Cambridge University Press.
- Eric Maskin. EVOLUTION AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOUR. Cambridge University
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