American Hall, Woodford win Nobel memorial prize in economics

Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford won the economics prize in Stockholm on Monday for models that help governments and central banks manage economic shocks. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work helps policymakers smooth economic fluctuations, including energy crises and inflation. Hall is affiliated with Stanford University and Woodford with Columbia University.

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million.

Hall and Woodford developed models that account for how consumers and businesses decide whether to spend and invest.

The 1970s stagflation of high inflation and high unemployment exposed limits in earlier economic policy models.

The prize is formally called the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel and was established by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

Woodford told the prize committee by phone from New York that receiving the award was a tremendous honor and a surprise.

Published Oct 12, 2026 7:58 pm KST

The winners of the 2026 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, Robert E Hall, left, and Michael Woodford, are displayed on a screen at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Oct. 12. AFP-Yonhap

STOCKHOLM — American-born economists Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford won the Nobel memorial prize in economics on Monday for their work on models that have helped governments and central banks manage economic shocks, such as energy crises and inflation.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners in Stockholm, saying the two were being honored for work that has helped policymakers deal with economic fluctuations.

“The laureates have helped us smooth out the economy’s peaks and troughs,” the academy said in a statement.

Hall is affiliated with Stanford University in California, and Woodford with Columbia University in New York.

Woodford spoke to the committee by phone Monday from New York, saying: “It’s a tremendous honor, it’s a surprise."

“The laureates’ work has provided us with a stable theoretical foundation for the models that are now used by central banks and governments around the world,” John Hassler, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a news release.

“With them, we are better equipped to deal with shocks in the economy, such as energy crises or sudden changes in how much households consume.”

For decades, governments responded to economic shocks by following the Depression-era prescriptions of the British economist John Maynard Keynes: intervene in the economy by lowering taxes and hiking government spending, thereby encouraging consumers and businesses to spend and invest themselves and help growth get restarted.

“This is the Keynesian recipe and it worked well – until it didn’t,’’ said Timo Boppart of the Nobel economics prize committee. Policymakers had thought economic management involved simple tradeoffs – unemployment, for instance, would stay low at a time of high inflation and rise when inflation fell. But the “stagflation’’ of the 1970s — when the world economy experienced simultaneous high inflation and high unemployment — proved the formula was simplistic.

Hall and Woodford set about coming up with an improved model that took into account how consumers and businesses actually made decisions about whether to invest and spend.

“In separate contributions, Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford helped build this new foundation for stabilization policy,” Hassler said.

Last year, three researchers who study business innovation won for explaining how new products and inventions promote economic growth and human welfare, even as they leave older companies in the dust.

The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The central bank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.

Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, but it is always presented together with the others on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine , physics , chemistry , literature and peace.

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organization.

罗伯特·E·霍尔和迈克尔·伍德福德周一在斯德哥尔摩荣获诺贝尔经济学奖，以表彰他们开发的帮助政府和中央银行应对经济冲击的模型。瑞典皇家科学院表示，他们的研究有助于政策制定者平抑经济波动，包括​​能源危机和通货膨胀。霍尔任职于斯坦福大学，伍德福德任职于哥伦比亚大学。

今年的奖金为 1200 万瑞典克朗，约合 120 万美元。

霍尔和伍德福德建立了模型，解释了消费者和企业如何决定是否消费和投资。

20 世纪 70 年代的高通胀和高失业率导致的滞胀暴露了早期经济政策模型的局限性。

该奖项的正式名称为“瑞典银行纪念阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔经济学奖”，由瑞典中央银行于 1968 年设立。

伍德福德在纽约通过电话告诉评奖委员会，获得该奖项是莫大的荣誉和惊喜。

发布于2026年10月12日晚上7:58（韩国标准时间）

2026年瑞典国家银行纪念阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔经济学奖得主罗伯特·霍尔（左）和迈克尔·伍德福德的头像于10月12日在斯德哥尔摩瑞典皇家科学院的大屏幕上展示。（法新社-韩联社）

斯德哥尔摩——美国出生的经济学家罗伯特·E·霍尔和迈克尔·伍德福德周一荣获诺贝尔经济学奖，以表彰他们在帮助各国政府和中央银行应对能源危机和通货膨胀等经济冲击的模型方面的工作。

瑞典皇家科学院在斯德哥尔摩宣布了获奖者名单，称这两位科学家因其在帮助政策制定者应对经济波动方面所做的工作而获得表彰。

“获奖者帮助我们平抑了经济的高峰和低谷，”该学院在一份声明中表示。

霍尔隶属于加利福尼亚州的斯坦福大学，伍德福德隶属于纽约州的哥伦比亚大学。

伍德福德周一在纽约通过电话向委员会表示：“这对我来说是莫大的荣幸，也是一个惊喜。”

“获奖者的研究成果为我们提供了稳定的理论基础，这些模型现在被世界各地的中央银行和政府所使用，”经济学奖委员会主席约翰·哈斯勒在一份新闻稿中表示。

“有了它们，我们就能更好地应对经济冲击，例如能源危机或家庭消费量的突然变化。”

几十年来，各国政府应对经济冲击的方式都是遵循英国经济学家约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯在大萧条时期提出的建议：通过降低税收和增加政府支出来干预经济，从而鼓励消费者和企业进行消费和投资，帮助经济重新增长。

“这就是凯恩斯主义的公式，它曾经非常有效——直到它失效为止，”诺贝尔经济学奖委员会的蒂莫·博帕特说道。政策制定者曾认为经济管理涉及简单的权衡取舍——例如，在高通胀时期失业率会保持低位，而在通胀下降时失业率会上升。但20世纪70年代的“滞胀”——当时世界经济同时经历了高通胀和高失业率——证明这种公式过于简单。

霍尔和伍德福德着手提出一个改进的模型，该模型考虑到了消费者和企业实际如何决定是否投资和消费。

哈斯勒说：“罗伯特·E·霍尔和迈克尔·伍德福德分别做出了贡献，为稳定政策奠定了这一新的基础。”

去年，三位研究商业创新的研究人员因解释了新产品和发明如何促进经济增长和人类福祉，同时又将老牌公司远远甩在身后而获奖。

该经济学奖的正式名称为“瑞典银行纪念阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔经济学奖”。瑞典中央银行于1968年设立该奖项，以纪念19世纪瑞典商人兼化学家阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔，他发明了炸药并设立了五项诺贝尔奖。

诺贝尔奖的拥护者强调，经济学奖严格来说并不是诺贝尔奖，但它总是与其他奖项一起在 12 月 10 日颁发，这一天是诺贝尔 1896 年逝世的周年纪念日。

上周公布了诺贝尔医学奖、物理学奖、化学奖、文学奖和和平奖的获奖名单。

今年的奖金为 1200 万瑞典克朗（约合 120 万美元），无论是颁发给个人、小型获奖团体还是组织。