Two Americans Win The 2026 Nobel Prize In Economic Sciences

Forbes - The 2026 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded today to two American scholars — Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford.

Hall (currently with Stanford University) and Woodford (at Columbia University) were recognized for their their work on economic stabilization policies. On the basis of the new macroeconomic models they developed, “well-timed fiscal and monetary policy measures can reduce the economy’s peaks and troughs,” according to the Nobel press release.

A main component in these models is that households and businesses are forward looking when they make decisions about savings or product prices. When governments and central banks communicate their economic policy plans, they can influence such views of the future and move the economy in the right direction. Since the new models were introduced, they have helped deal with various economic downturns.

"The laureates’ work has provided us with a stable theoretical foundation for the models that are now used by central banks and governments around the world. With them, we are better equipped to deal with shocks in the economy, such as energy crises or sudden changes in how much households consume,” said John Hassler, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, in the press release.

The work of Hall and Woodford has proved beneficial for managing economic shocks like those from the pandemic and the energy crises of recent years. While recessions and episodes of high inflation have not disappeared, they tend to be less long-lasting.

Robert Hall is professor of economics at Stanford University, where he is the Robert and Carole McNeil Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Hall received his BA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before coming to Stanford in 1978, he held faculty positions at both MIT and at the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Woodford is the John Bates Clark Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University. He received his BA from the University of Chicago, his JD from Yale Law School, and his PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been named both a MacArthur Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has now been awarded 58 times to 101 winners. This year, the Prize is worth 12 million Swedish kroner, equal to about $1.2 million dollars. That sum will be split equally between this year’s two recipients. The Nobel Prize laureates also receive a diploma and a medal.

Last year, the Economic Sciences prize was awarded to three scholars — Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University, Phillippe Aghion of the London School of Economic and Peter Howitt of Brown University.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel, the Swedish polymath, businessman and inventor of dynamite, bequeathed the majority of his estate to create five prizes (in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace), recognizing “those, who during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” The first awards were conferred in 1901. A sixth award, not technically a Nobel, was established in 1968; it’s officially designated as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.