Columbia University Press Congratulates Author Paul Milgrom on Winning the Nobel Prize in Economics
American economist Paul Milgrom along with his colleague Robert Wilson have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their contributions to auction theory, announced the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday, October 12.
Milgrom, the Shirley R. and Leonard W. Ely, Jr. Professor of Humanities and Science in the Department of Economics at Stanford University, gave the Kenneth J. Arrow Lecture at Columbia University in 2014. That lecture was subsequently published as the book Discovering Prices: Auction Design in Markets with Complex Constraints by Columbia University Press in 2017, as part of the Kenneth J. Arrow Lecture Series.
In Discovering Prices, Milgrom describes how auctions can be used to discover prices and guide efficient resource allocations, even when resources are diverse, constraints are critical, and market-clearing prices may not even exist. Milgrom roots his theories in real-world examples, including the ambitious U.S. incentive auction of radio frequencies, whose design he led. Both lively and technical, Milgrom’s analysis provides economists with crucial new tools for dealing with the world’s growing complex resource-allocation problems.
Kenneth J. Arrow’s work has so deeply shaped the course of economics for the past sixty years that in a sense, every modern economist is his student. His ideas, style of research, and breadth of vision have been a model for generations of the boldest, most creative, and most innovative economists. His work has yielded such seminal theorems as general equilibrium, social choice, and endogenous growth, proving that simple ideas have profound effects. The Kenneth J. Arrow Lecture Series highlights economists, from Nobel laureates to groundbreaking younger scholars, whose work builds on Arrow’s scholarship as well as his innovative spirit. The books in the series are an expansion of the lectures in Arrow’s honor that are held at Columbia University.
The lectures have been supported by Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought, Program for Economic Research, Center on Global Economic Governance, and Initiative for Policy Dialogue.
Watch this video of Paul Milgrom discussing his research as part of the Kenneth J. Arrow Lecture series.
