The Nobel Prize in Economics 2020 and the Connections with Computer Science
The latest edition of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded jointly to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson for “improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.” Eight years ago, Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the same prize for their seminal work on the theory and application of matching markets. The 2012 and 2020 awards are an acknowledgement of the impact of the field of market design — -the science of designing rules for markets. Whereas the 2012 award focussed on markets that explicitly prohibit money (such as in matching doctors to hospitals and kidney donors to patients), the 2020 award concerns important large-scale markets in which money matters (such as allocating radio-spectrum frequencies). At their heart, both types of markets are concerned with facilitating better and more efficient outcomes. Market design has now become recognized as a prominent field in ec...
