The 2026 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm announced on Monday.
The pair got the Nobel for their work in microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization, allowing for the development of economic models that help governments and central banks respond more effectively to booms and recessions. The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Last year’s prize was awarded to three business innovation researchers who explained how new products and inventions promote economic growth and human welfare, even as they leave older companies behind. The Sveriges Riksbank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes. according to news reports.
Since the economics prize was not one of the five original Nobel Prizes established by Nobel in his will, some argue that it is technically not a Nobel Prize. Nevertheless, it is always presented together with the others on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.
Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. This year’s prize money is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million or €1.07 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organization.