Maskin, Eric Stark (1950-…), is an American economist who won the 2007 Nobel Prize in economic sciences. He shared the award with the Russian-born American economist Leonid Hurwicz and the American economist Roger B. Myerson for their work in mechanism design theory.
Mechanism design theory helps provide a framework for analyzing economic systems and institutions and for creating mechanisms that improve outcomes. It applies real-world conditions, including interactions among individuals and institutions involved in a market, to traditional economic theory. Among other things, it helps economists understand why markets work well in certain situations but not in others. Mechanism design theory also has political and social applications. For example, it has been used for labor negotiations and auctioning of government bonds.
Maskin was born on Dec. 12, 1950, in New York City. Maskin received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1972, and master’s and doctor’s degrees in applied mathematics from the school in 1974 and 1976, respectively. He and Myerson studied at Harvard during much of the same period, and the two later collaborated on some of their research on mechanism design theory.
Maskin taught economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1977 to 1984 and at Harvard University from 1985 to 2000. He also held fellowships at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom during the 1970’s and 1980’s. In 2000, Maskin became the Alfred O. Hirschman Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
