The US trio Leonid Hurwicz (bio), Eric Maskin (bio) and Roger Myerson (bio) won 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory", announced The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Hurwicz, a U.S. citizen born in Moscow, is an emeritus professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Maskin, 56, a New York City native, is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Boston-born Myerson, 56, is a professor at the University of Chicago.
The three economists picked up the prize for their work that helps find the optimal mechanism to reach certain goals such as social welfare or private profit.
"Mechanism design theory initiated by Leonid Hurwicz and further developed by Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson has greatly enhanced our understanding of optimal allocation mechanisms in such situations, accounting for individuals' incentives and private information," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
"Today, mechanism design theory plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science," it said.
The economics prize is the last prize handed out this year and not part of the original crop of Nobel Prizes set out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will. It was established in 1968 and is officially called The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Link