Leonid Hurwicz
Leonid Hurwicz | |
---|---|
Graduate Institute of International Studies London School of Economics | |
Doctoral students | Clifford Hildreth Stanley Reiter Daniel McFadden Richard B. McHugh Leigh Tesfatsion Myrna Wooders |
Influences | Tjalling Koopmans Jacob Marschak Friedrich Hayek |
Contributions | Mechanism design |
Awards | National Medal of Science (1990) Nobel Memorial Prize (2007) |
Information at IDEAS / RePEc |
Leonid Hurwicz (Polish pronunciation:
Hurwicz was educated and grew up in Poland, and became a refugee in the United States after Hitler
Hurwicz was among the first economists to recognize the value of game theory and was a pioneer in its application.[4][5] Interactions of individuals and institutions, markets and trade are analyzed and understood today using the models Hurwicz developed.[6]
Personal life
Hurwicz was born in
Hurwicz hired Evelyn Jensen (born October 31, 1923), who grew up on a
His interests included linguistics, archaeology, biochemistry and music.
He was hospitalized in mid-June 2008, suffering from renal failure. He died a week later in Minneapolis.[12][13]
Education and early academic career
Encouraged by his father to study law,
In 1941 Hurwicz was a research assistant to
Teaching and research
Hurwicz received a
Hurwicz was recruited by
Back at Minnesota, Hurwicz became chairman of the Statistics Department in 1961, Regents Professor of Economics in 1969, and Curtis L. Carlson Regents Professor of Economics in 1989.[11] He taught subjects ranging from theory to welfare economics, public economics, mechanisms and institutions and mathematical economics.[8] Although he retired from full-time teaching in 1988,[10] Hurwicz taught graduate school as professor emeritus most recently in the fall of 2006.[10] In 2007 his ongoing research was described by the University of Minnesota as "comparison and analysis of systems and techniques of economic organization, welfare economics, game-theoretic implementation of social choice goals, and modeling economic institutions."[21]
Hurwicz's interests included mathematical economics and modeling and the theory of the firm.[5] His published works in these fields date back to 1944.[22] He is internationally renowned for his pioneering research on economic theory, particularly in the areas of mechanism and institutional design and mathematical economics. In the 1950s, he worked with Kenneth Arrow on non-linear programming;[5] in 1972 Arrow became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Economics prize.[23] Hurwicz was the graduate advisor to Daniel McFadden,[24] who received the prize in 2000.[25]
Earlier economists often avoided analytic modeling of economic institutions. Hurwicz's work was instrumental in showing how economic models can provide a framework for the analysis of systems, such as capitalism and socialism, and how the incentives in such systems affect members of society.[26] The theory of incentive compatibility that Hurwicz developed changed the way many economists thought about outcomes, explaining why centrally planned economies may fail and how incentives for individuals make a difference in decision making.[24]
Hurwicz served on the editorial board of several journals. He co-edited and contributed to two collections for Cambridge University Press: Studies in Resource Allocation Processes (1978, with Kenneth Arrow) and Social Goals and Social Organization (1987, with David Schmeidler and Hugo Sonnenschein). His most recent articles were published in the journals "Economic Theory" (2003, with Thomas Marschak), "Review of Economic Design" (2001, with Stanley Reiter) and "Advances in Mathematical Economics" (2003, with Marcel K. Richter).[27] Hurwicz presented the Fisher-Schultz (1963), Richard T. Ely (1972), David Kinley (1989) and Colin Clark (1997) lectures.[citation needed]
Awards and honors
Memberships and honorary degrees
Hurwicz was elected a fellow of the
He served on the
Hurwicz received six honorary doctorates, from
Named for Hurwicz
First presented in 1950, the Hurwicz criterion is thought about to this day in the area of decision making called "under uncertainty."[30][31][32] Abraham Wald published decision functions that year.[33] Hurwicz combined Wald's ideas with work done in 1812 by Pierre-Simon Laplace.[34] Hurwicz's criterion gives each decision a value which is "a weighted sum of its worst and best possible outcomes" represented as α and known as an index of pessimism or optimism.[31] Variations have been proposed ever since and some corrections came very soon from Leonard Jimmie Savage in 1954.[30] These four approaches– Laplace, Wald, Hurwicz and Savage– have been studied, corrected and applied for over fifty years by many different people including John Milnor, G. L. S. Shackle,[30] Daniel Ellsberg,[35] R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa, in a field some date back to Jacob Bernoulli.[36]
In 2010, the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota launched the Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute, a global initiative created to inform public policy by supporting and promoting frontier economic research and by communicating findings to leading academics, policymakers, and business executives around the world. Funds raised by the Institute are used to attract and retain preeminent faculty and, in part, to support graduate student research.
The University of Michigan has an endowed chair named for Hurwicz, the Leonid Hurwicz Collegiate Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics, currently held by Scott E. Page.
The Leonid Hurwicz Distinguished Lecture is given to the Minnesota Economic Association (as is the Heller lecture).
Nobel Prize in Economics
In October 2007, Hurwicz shared the
Unable to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm because of his poor health,[41] Hurwicz received the prize in Minneapolis. Accompanied by Evelyn, his spouse of six decades, and his family, he was the guest of honor at a convocation held on the campus of the University of Minnesota presided over by university president Robert Bruininks. Immediately following a live broadcast of the Nobel Prize awards ceremony, Jonas Hafström, Swedish ambassador to the United States, personally awarded the Economics Prize to Professor Hurwicz.[42] His wife died in 2016 aged 93.
Publications
- Hurwicz, Leonid (December 1945). "The theory of economic behavior". The American Economic Review. 35 (5). American Economic Association via JSTOR: 909–925. JSTOR 1812602. Exposition on game theoryclassic.
- Hurwicz, Leonid (April 1946). "Theory of the firm and of investment". JSTOR 1905363.
- Hurwicz, Leonid (July 1947). "Some problems arising in estimating economic relations". JSTOR 1905482.
- Hurwicz, Leonid; Arrow, Kenneth J. (1953). Hurwicz's optimality criterion for decision making under ignorance. Technical Report 6. Stanford University.
- Also available as: Hurwicz, Leonid; ISBN 9780511752940.
- and as: Hurwicz, Leonid; ISBN 9780521215220
- Also available as: Hurwicz, Leonid;
- Hurwicz, Leonid (1960), "Optimality and informational efficiency in resource allocation processes", in ISBN 9780804700214
- Hurwicz, Leonid (May 1969). "On the concept and possibility of informational decentralization". The American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. 59 (2). American Economic Association via JSTOR: 513–524. JSTOR 1823704.
- Hurwicz, Leonid; ISBN 9780631141709.
- Hurwicz, Leonid (May 1973). "The design of mechanisms for resource allocation". The American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. 63 (2). American Economic Association via JSTOR: 1–30. JSTOR 1817047.
- Hurwicz, Leonid;
- Hurwicz, Leonid (May 1995). "What is the Coase Theorem?". Japan and the World Economy. 7 (1). Elsevier: 49–74. .
- Hurwicz, Leonid; ISBN 9780521724104.
See also
References
- ^ "American Jewish Recipients of the Nobel Prize". Archived from the original on 2011-10-09. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
- ^ "Leonid Hurwicz". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
- ^ a b Ohlin, Pia (15 October 2007). "US trio wins Nobel Economics Prize". Agence France Presse. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ Kuhn, Harold (introduction) (7 August 2007). "Sample Chapter for von Neumann, John & Morgenstern, Oskar. Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (Commemorative Edition)". Princeton University Press. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-20.
- ^ a b c d Higgins, Charlotte (15 October 2007). "Americans win Nobel for economics". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ Lohr, Steve (2007-10-16). "Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on Social Mechanisms". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ a b c d e Hughes, Art (15 October 2007). "Leonid Hurwicz—commanding intellect, humble soul, Nobel Prize winner". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ a b c "A house resolution honoring Professor Leo Hurwicz on his 90th birthday". Legislature of the State of Minnesota (image via University of Minnesota, umn.edu). 9 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b c d e Clement, Douglas (Fall 2006). "Intelligent Designer" (PDF). Minnesota Economics. Department of Economics, University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts: 6–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b c Horwath, Justin (16 October 2007). "U economics prof awarded Nobel Prize". The Minnesota Daily. Archived from the original on 2008-01-06. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Perspectives on Leo Hurwicz, A Celebration of 90 Years (timeline)" (PDF). University of Minnesota (econ.umn.edu). 14 April 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Leonid Hurwicz won Nobel in economics". startribune.com.
- ^ Grimes, William (2008-06-26). "Leonid Hurwicz, 90, Nobel Economist". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c d "Five-Year Report, 1942–46, XII. Biographical and Bibliographic Notes". Cowles Foundation, Yale University. 1942–1946. Archived from the original on 2007-06-15. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ Chiacu, Doina (Reuters) (15 October 2007). "Russian-born U.S. economist oldest-ever Nobel winner". Reuters Group. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
{{cite news}}
:|author=
has generic name (help) - ^ "Report for 1942". Cowles Foundation, Yale University. 1942. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ISBN 978-0-521-62412-1.
- ^ "Report for 1950–1951". Cowles Foundation, Yale University. 1951. Archived from the original on 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics: Staff Lists, 1955–Present". Yale University. Retrieved 2007-10-20.
- ^ "Guide to the Leonid Hurwicz papers, 1911-2008 and undated". David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Retrieved 2016-11-15.
- ^ "University of Minnesota Professor Leonid Hurwicz wins Nobel Prize in economics" (Press release). Regents of the University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ "Major Works of Leonid Hurwicz". The history of Economic Thought. cepa.newschool.edu. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ "Nobel Laureates". Frequently Asked Questions. Nobelprize.org. 2007. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b c Morrison, Deanne (15 October 2007). "University professor wins Nobel Prize". UMN News, Regents of the University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ "All Laureates in Economics". Nobelprize.org. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ Myerson, Roger B. (2007-02-28). Fundamental Theory of Institutions: A Lecture in Honor of Leo Hurwicz (PDF). University of Chicago. p. 2. Retrieved 2007-10-15. Hurwicz Lecture originally presented at the North American meetings of the Econometric Society, at the University of Minnesota on 2006-06-22.
- ISBN 978-0-521-83641-8. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
- ^ "Academic Exchange with Foreign Institutions". Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Economics. Archived from the original on 2007-08-08. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b c Zappia, Carlo; Basili, Marcello (May 2005). "Shackle versus Savage: non-probabilistic alternatives to subjective probability theory in the 1950s". Quaderni (452). Università degli Studi di Siena, Dipartimento di Economia Politica. Archived from the original on 2010-08-27. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ a b Jaffray, Jean-Yves; Jeleva, Meglena (16–19 July 2007). "Information Processing under Imprecise Risk with the Hurwicz criterion" (PDF). International Symposium on Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications (conference proceedings via sipta.org). Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ISBN 0-471-55341-7
- ^ Wald, Abraham (1950). Statistical Decision Functions. John Wiley & Sons.
- ISBN 978-0-88385-637-6.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-4022-5.
- ISBN 978-0-691-02372-4. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2007" (Press release). Nobel Foundation. October 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
- ^ "Leonid Hurwicz – Interviews". Nobel Foundation. October 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
- ^ a b Tong, Vinnie (Associated Press) (15 October 2007). "U.S. Trio Wins Nobel Economics Prize". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ Bergman, Jonas; Kennedy, Simon (15 October 2007). "Hurwicz, Maskin and Myerson Win Nobel Economics Prize". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ Walsh, Paul (2007-12-10). "U professor to receive his Nobel Prize today". Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
- ^ Art Hughes (2007-12-10). "Minnesota's newest Nobel Laureate receives his prize". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
External links
- Leonid Hurwicz Papers at Duke University
- Leonid Hurwicz on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture Who Will Guard the Guardians?
- Soumyen Sikdar, Leonid Hurwicz (1917–2008): A Tribute, Contemporary Issues and Ideas in Social Sciences, Vol 4, No 2 (2008)
- "Perspectives on Leo Hurwicz (conference program and photos)". University of Minnesota (econ.umn.edu). 14 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- Clement, Douglas (Fall 2006). "Intelligent Designer (cover story)" (PDF). Minnesota Economics. Department of Economics, University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts: 6–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- "Intelligent design". The Economist. 18 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- Cho, Adrian (15 October 2007). "The Economics Nobel: Giving Adam Smith a Helping Hand". ScienceNOW Daily News. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Archived from the original on 2007-10-18. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- Fonseca, Gonçalo L. (author and maintainer). "Major Works of Leonid Hurwicz, in Leonid Hurwicz, 1917–". History of Economic Thought Website, The New School. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
{{cite web}}
:|author=
has generic name (help) - Tabarrok, Alex (2007-10-16). "What is Mechanism Design? Explaining the research that won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics". Reasononline news. Reason Magazine. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
- Biography of Leonid Hurwicz from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences