Myerson, Roger Bruce (1951-…), 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 Eric S. Maskin for 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.
Myerson was born on March 29, 1951, in Boston. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard University in 1973 and a doctor’s degree in applied mathematics from the university in 1976. He and Maskin studied at Harvard during much of the same period, and the two later collaborated on some of their research on mechanism design theory.
Myerson taught economics at Northwestern University from 1976 to 2001. That year, he became a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Myerson has written a number of books, including Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict (1991) and Probability Models for Economic Decisions (2005).
See also Game theory.
