The Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics
2022 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Ariel Pakes
Harvard University
For his fundamental contributions to the development of the field of empirical industrial organization as it is applied to the study of market power, prices, mergers and productivity.
As the Thomas Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Ariel Pakes develops methods for empirically analyzing market responses to environmental and policy changes. More »

2020 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Claudia Goldin
Harvard University
For her groundbreaking insights into the history of the American economy, the evolution of gender roles and the interplay of technology, human capital and labor markets.
An economic historian and labor economist, Claudia Goldin is best known for her work on women in the U.S. economy. More »

2018 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
David M. Kreps
Stanford University
For his work in game theory, decision theory, and finance profoundly shaped the direction of economic research by providing rigorous foundations and inspirations for new models in applied and theoretical economics.
Professor Kreps has taught MBA and doctoral level courses in decision theory, microeconomics, statistics, operations, competitive strategy, game theory, and human resource management. More »

2016 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Richard Blundell
University College London and Institute for Fiscal Studies, United Kingdom
For his important contributions to labor economics, public finance and applied econometrics.
Blundell's research improves the foundations for economic policy and furthers our understanding of economic behavior. More »

2014 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Jean Tirole
Foundation Jean-Jacques Laffont/Toulouse School of Economics and Institute for Industrial Economics, University of Toulouse Capitole
For various contributions to economic theory and its application to finance, industrial organization and behavioral economics
As one of the world’s leading economists, Tirole has been influential in the theoretical and practical application of game theory and information theory to industrial organization and regulation. His research interests also include finance, macroeconomics, international finance, economics and psychology. More »

2012 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Daron Acemoglu
For fundamental contributions to the understanding of political institutions, technical change and economic growth
Acemoglu is an extremely productive economist whose work is motivated by real-world questions that arise when facts are difficult to reconcile with existing theory. His research covers a wide range of areas within economics, including political economy, economic development and growth, human capital theory, growth theory, innovation, search theory and network economics and learning. His work has propelled him to the frontier of each of the variety of fields he has explored and he has been especially innovative in his most recent area of study dealing with the role of institutions in the political and economic development of nations. More »

2010 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Elhanan Helpman
For fundamental contributions to the understanding of modern international economics and the effects of political institutions on trade policy and economic growth
Helpman is highly cited for his scholarship on international trade, economic growth and the political economy of trade policy. He has done research on how the interaction of lobbying groups and politics shape trade policy and on relationships between international trade and the organizations of firms. More »

2008 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Paul R. Milgrom
For contributions dramatically expanding the understanding of the role of information and incentives in a variety of settings, including auctions, the theory of the firm, and oligopolistic markets
Milgrom's path-breaking work has developed and popularized new tools for the analysis of asymmetric information and strategic interaction and, most significantly, has shown the usefulness of those tools for the analysis of applied problems. More »

2006 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Lars Peter Hansen
For rigorously relating economic theory to observed macroeconomic and asset market behavior and for innovations in modeling optimal policy under uncertainty
Widely recognized as one of the most important empirical economists of our day, Hansen's studies of macroeconomic and asset market behavior are notable for their methodological innovations, combining economic theory and frontier econometric methods. He also has made important contributions in modeling optimal policy under uncertainty. More »

2004 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Ariel Rubinstein
For a broad series of highly original contributions to game theory in economics, ranging from analyses of bargaining and repeated games to models of bounded rationality
Rubinstein's work on non-cooperative bargaining has been extraordinarily influential. Recognized as one of the most important and creative economic theorists of our day, he was among the first to develop a compelling game theoretic model of non-cooperative bargaining with a unique solution to the bargaining problem. More »

2002 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Edward C. Prescott
For work focused on business cycles and economic fluctuations that has greatly influenced the field of economics, as well as industrial organization, finance, general equilibrium theory, econometrics, and other areas of study
Prescott is widely regarded as one of the intellectual leaders of the rational expectations movement within modern macroeconomics. His theory that a substantial part of business cycles are simply the best response of the economy to policy changes that affect the economy's productivity is widely accepted in the field of economics. More »

2000 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Daniel L. McFadden
For pioneering contributions in econometrics and founding modern econometric research on the analysis of discrete choice
McFadden has been highly influential in theoretical and applied economics, contributing important milestones in the development of microeconometrics, the field that deals with the analysis of economic data using models of consumer and firm behavior. The models and methods that he developed have become standard tools used to interpret the decisions made by consumers, firms and governments in a wide variety of contexts. More »

1998 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Robert J. Aumann
For revolutionizing economics and other social sciences by expanding their analysis to issues of strategies, coalitions and information
Aumann's contributions include substantial discoveries about large competitive markets and games with a continuum of players, the development of the general model of coalitional games, the first studies of dynamic strategic interaction with differential information, founding the subject of interactive epistemology and establishing the logical foundation of rational correlated behavior. More »

1996 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Thomas J. Sargent
For his work in both empirical and theoretical macroeconomics, and pioneering research analyzing how consumers and firms form expectations about future government policies
Sargent's work has been instrumental in developing empirical versions of the theory of rational expectations. He applied the theory of rational expectations to study the causes and cures of hyperinflations, the correlation between unemployment and inflations, the term structure of interest rates and the interaction between monetary and fiscal policies. More »

1994 Nemmers Prize in Economics Recipient
Peter A. Diamond
For his analysis of the effects of the public debt on the behavior of the economy in the long run, his revolutionary study of sales and property taxes, and his pioneering of a novel way of thought regarding prosperity and recession
Diamond's path-breaking work has formed the basis for much of what has been written in the past decade about the growth of the U.S. public debt and showed governments how they could raise the required amount of revenue while minimizing the harmful effects of the taxes on the functioning of the economy. More »