Prize in Economic Sciences

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was instituted in 1968, at the tercentenary of the bank. The awarding ceremony takes place on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. The laureates in economic sciences are announced and published on the Academy’s and the Nobel Foundation web sites every year in mid-October immediately after they have been chosen.

The Prize in Economic Sciences 2012

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2012 to Alvin E. Roth, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, and Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA, and Lloyd S. Shapley, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design”.

Press release

Announcement of the Prize in Economic Sciences 2012

Prize Poster

Why have the Laureates of the Prize in Economic Sciences received the world’s most prestigious prize? Posters explaining the Prize in Economic Sciences are produced annually and distributed to schools and scientific institutes. Free copies can be ordered from the Academy's reception desk by e-mail posters@kva.se, or phone +46 86739500.

A Perfect Match
This year’s prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents with each other as well as possible. For example,
students have to be matched with schools, and donors of human organs with patients in need of a transplant. How can such matching be accomplished in an efficient way? What methods are beneficial to what groups? 

Prize Lectures

In connection with the awarding ceremonies in December each year, the laureates hold their prize lectures. Since 1999 the lectures are available on the Internet at Nobelprize.org.

Nominating and awarding

The nomination and selection of the Prize in Economic Sciences Laureates is to a large extent handled by the Prize Committee at the Academy. Each year the committee send invitations to thousands of scientists, members of academies and university professors in numerous countries, asking them to nominate candidates for the Prize in Economic Sciences for the coming year. Members of the Academy and former laureates are also authorised to nominate candidates.

The nominations received by the committee are then investigated with the help of specially appointed experts. When the committee have made their selection among the nominated candidates and have presented their recommendation to the Academy, a vote is taken for the final choice of laureates. The Academy's decisions are announced and published on the Academy’s and the Nobel Foundation’s web sites immediately after the vote in mid-October each year.