Die Welt

The Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded for the eighth successive year to economists from the USA. Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson. The Swedish National Bank made the award for their work on "mechanism design theory", which examines the processes by which people trade.

Their work belongs to the theory of contract, and is said to be useful in determining when markets function well and when badly. Hurwicz, who was born in Moscow, first formulated the theory which is aimed at research into contract-formulation strategies. The Stockholm Nobel Committee stated that Maskin and Myerson had developed the theory further.

The prize is worth about 1.1 million Euros and will be presented on 10 December together with the other five in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace which were announced last week. The prize in Economics was established in 1968 by the Swedish national Bank in memory of Alfred Nobel and is the only one not awarded from his estate. The Prize is always awarded on 10 December, the anniversary of his death.

Last year US economist Edmund S Phelps was awarded the Prize for his work on the relationship between prices and the labour market. Of the sixty-one winners of the Economics Prize more than two thirds did their research in the US.