Two American academics have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics for their work laying the microeconomic foundations that stabilize the macroeconomy.
Foreign news agencies reported on 12 Oct 2026 GMT+7 that Professor Robert E. Hall of Stanford University and Professor Michael Woodford of Columbia University have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics, each awarded 6 million Swedish kronor.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated that the two American scholars received the prize for developing a new economic model that helps governments and central banks stabilize the economy and mitigate the impact of external crises or volatility.
They shifted focus from solely macro-level variables like inflation, production, and consumption to a micro-level perspective to understand how individual and household decisions affect the economy, highlighting that households and businesses often plan ahead in decisions about saving and pricing.
Therefore, governments and central banks can influence public future expectations through clear communication of fiscal and monetary policies to steer the economy in the right direction.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that their work helps "reduce volatility in economic cycles" and has become a fundamental theory that central banks and governments worldwide use to address economic crises, such as energy shocks or sudden changes in consumer behavior.
The Nobel Prize in Economics was not originally established by Alfred Nobel himself but was created by Sweden's central bank in 1968 to honor Nobel and is the last Nobel Prize announced each year.
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Source:cnn