Economics
Harvard and MIT Economists Share Nobel for Contract Theory
- Harvard’s Hart and MIT’s Holmström studied contract theory
- Holmström voices concern over stagnant U.S. middle class wages
Harvard, MIT Economists Share Nobel Prize
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Harvard University’s Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics for laying the groundwork for contract theory and its role in shaping everything from executive pay to privatizations.
Work by the 67-year-old Holmström in the 1970s, and later by Hart, 68, helped establish contract theory “as a fertile field of basic research,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday. They will share the 8 million-krona ($926,000) prize.