The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has chosen JÖRGEN W. WEIBULL as the winner of the 1999 Söderberg Prize. The value of the prize is SEK 500 000.
Jörgen Weibull has made valuable contributions to the theory of games, in which he has become internationally known primarily for his research concerning evolutionary games. Such games describe mathematically how in strategic situations actors gradually adapt their behaviour to earlier experience. Applications of the theory range from economics to biology. Weibull’s Evolutionary Game Theory, 1995, is a leading book in this vigorous research area.
Also noted internationally is Weibull’s contribution to “political economics”, the research area at the border between economics and political science where among other things the forces behind economic politics are studied. In collaboration with Assar Lindbeck, Weibull has, for example, shown how parties competing for the electorate’s favour will create public transfer payment programmes.
Born in 1948, Weibull received his doctorate in applied mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, in 1978. He received his first professorship in political science in 1989 and his present chair, at the School of Economics in Stockholm, in 1989.
The prize will be awarded at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 20 January 2000. The prize amount, SEK 500,000, has been made available by the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations.