Economists Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their research into better match making.
Economists Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their research into better match making.
According to the committee, the pair won their prize for “the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.”
Shapley’s research developed an algorithm, which he used to make matches where both parties are pleased with the result. Roth has used the method to better match student doctors to hospitals, students to schools and organs to organ donors.
Roth, 60, is currently a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Shapley, 89, is a professor emeritus at University of California Los Angeles.
Roth, who updates a blog called Market Design, posted at 4:38 a.m. ET, saying “Blog may be delayed today… count me as surprised.”
When reached in California shortly after being told that he won the prize (at 3:30 a.m.), Roth told Nobelprize.org: “Well, I’m surprised but it is still too early in the morning for me to have more articulated feelings than that. Uh, I imagine that it’s going to be a busy day. My phone has already started to ring.”
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