Two American economists win the Nobel prize for work on steadying economies

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 21:29:00 GMT

The award lands as the central banks their research helped shape are raising rates into an energy shock.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday that Robert E. Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University had won the Nobel Prize in economics for research on how policymakers can stabilise economies. The Centre for Economic Policy Research said the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded to the pair “for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation”.

Nature said the laureates share an award that builds on the theories that contributed to governments intervening during the COVID-19 pandemic. Axios said their work helped shape how central banks set interest rates and communicate policy. The Columbia Spectator said Woodford has previously worked at the Federal Reserve, Harvard University and the European Central Bank, and returned to Columbia in 2004. The Daily Princetonian said he resigned from Princeton that year to take a chair in political economy at Columbia.

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Two American economists win the Nobel prize for work on steadying economies