Roth shares economics Nobel
Alvin E. Roth, an economist whose research as a member of Harvard Business School (HBS) and Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) improved the design and functioning of markets, has won the Nobel economics prize. Roth, the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration at HBS and in the Economics Department at FAS, won the prize along with Lloyd S. Shapley of the University of California, Los Angeles. Roth built on Shapley’s theories about the best ways to match “agents” in markets — for example, students matched with schools or organ donors with patients needing organs — and he conducted experiments to further illuminate Shapley’s work. He also helped to redesign existing institutions to improve their functioning. Roth, who called the news of his award “unimaginable,” was quick to direct praise to Shapley when the Nobel committee reached him by phone early this morning (Oct. 15). “It certainly is expected that Lloyd...