Economist Peter Diamond wins the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
Institute Professor | Professor of Economics
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
OCTOBER 2010
Peter A. Diamond PhD '63, Institute Professor and professor of economics at MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2010. Diamond has received the award along with two co-winners, Dale T. Mortensen of Northwestern University and Christopher A. Pissarides of the London School of Economics.
In an initial announcement, the Nobel Foundation cited the three scholars in part "for their analysis of markets with search frictions." Among many other avenues of research he has pursued in his career, Diamond helped develop studies beginning in the 1980s that examined the ways markets function. This aspect of economic research — “search theory” — has been frequently applied to labor markets in the years since, in an attempt to see how the needs of individuals and employers are met. — from MIT News, Peter Dizikes
Comments from the MIT Community
President Susan Hockfield
MIT President Susan Hockfield heralded Diamond’s accomplishments in introductory remarks at a press conference Monday, October 12, 2010. “As a professional economist," she said, "Peter has embraced the role of public citizen, conducting highly influential research over five decades on a remarkably diverse range of subjects,"
Dean Deborah Fitzgerald
“Of course Peter is an incredibly distinguished economist,” said Deborah Fitzgerald, Kenan Sahin Dean of MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. “People should also know he’s a dedicated member of the MIT community who has often worked behind the scenes to make the Institute a better place.”
Ricardo Caballero
Ricardo Caballero, Ford International Professor of Economics, and Head of the Department of Economics, writes, "This is great day not only for Peter, but for economics, and our department in particular. Peter is an economist's economist. He is simply brilliant. He was awarded the Nobel for his seminal work on search theory — a theory of the frictions and incentives involved in the process of matching — but he could have won it for his work on public debt and the overlapping generations model, or on optimal taxation with private information, and so on.
But Peter is not 'just' a superb theorist, he is somebody that can get into the gory details of a complex applied problem and completely reshape conventional wisdom on that problem. His work on social security systems is unparalleled. The Nobel Prize comes with immediate public celebrity. In some instances, this is a scary thought for those of us that know the winner, as it is not rare to have a brilliant economist with little common sense. Not so with Peter. He has enormous wisdom. His opinions are always well grounded and informed. This is a good day for economics. We want Peter in the bully-pulpit."
Links
Department of Economics | MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Video | Understanding the award | Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences
Professor Per Krusell explains why the model created and developed by the 2010 Laureates in Economic Sciences is a cornerstone in understanding the dynamic movements of the labour and housing markets.
Nobel Prize Press Release
Website | Nobelprize.org
Photograph by Dominick Reuter, for MIT News