Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford win the economics Nobel for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation
13 October 2026
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel on 12 October 2026.
It goes to Robert E. Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University, "for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation".
Their models are built on how households and businesses, looking ahead, decide on saving and prices.
The Academy says such models let governments and central banks time fiscal and monetary measures to reduce the economy's peaks and troughs.
The work answered doubts raised in the 1970s oil crises, when Keynesian models seemed to fail.
The prize amount is 12 million Swedish kronor, shared equally.
In plain words
Stabilisation policy Fiscal and monetary policy used to smooth economic cycles — Government and central-bank measures that cut rates or raise spending in a slump and do the opposite in a boom.
Sveriges Riksbank Central bank of Sweden — The bank that funds this prize, which is not one of the original five Nobel prizes.