Eric Maskin
Eric Maskin
A Nobel Laureate in Economics and a Leading Figure in Mechanism Design
Full Name and Common Aliases
Eric Stark Maskin is an American economist and academic who has made significant contributions to the field of economics. He is best known for his work on mechanism design, which has been instrumental in shaping the way economists think about incentives and decision-making.
Birth and Death Dates
Eric Maskin was born on December 12, 1950, in New York City. As this biography is being written, he is still alive.
Nationality and Profession(s)
Maskin holds American nationality and is a professor of economics at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. He has held various academic positions throughout his career, including serving as a professor at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Early Life and Background
Growing up in a family of modest means, Maskin developed an early interest in economics due to the influence of his parents, who were both interested in politics. He attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he excelled academically and was exposed to various subjects that would later shape his career. Maskin went on to study at Harvard University, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Mathematics. He then pursued his graduate studies at Harvard, earning his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Economics.
Major Accomplishments
Eric Maskin's work has been recognized globally for its originality and impact. His most notable contributions include:
Mechanism Design: Maskin is best known for his development of the theory of mechanism design, which provides a framework for designing economic institutions that can be used to implement social choice functions.
Nobel Prize in Economics (2007): Maskin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics along with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson for their pioneering work on mechanism design. Their research has had significant implications for understanding how incentives shape human behavior and decision-making.
Notable Works or Actions
Some of Maskin's notable works include:
"Nash Equilibrium and Welfare Optimality," a seminal paper co-authored with John Nash that laid the foundation for the theory of mechanism design.
"Multilateral Contracting," a book co-authored with Patrick Bolton, which provides an in-depth analysis of contract theory.
Impact and Legacy
Eric Maskin's work has had far-reaching implications for various fields, including economics, politics, and philosophy. His contributions to mechanism design have:
Informed the development of economic institutions and policies that promote efficiency and fairness.
Provided a framework for analyzing complex decision-making processes in fields such as contract theory and social choice.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Eric Maskin is widely quoted and remembered due to his significant contributions to the field of economics. His work on mechanism design has had a profound impact on our understanding of incentives, decision-making, and economic institutions. As a leading figure in the development of this theory, Maskin's ideas continue to shape the way economists think about the complex interactions between individuals and society.
In conclusion, Eric Maskin is an accomplished economist who has made lasting contributions to the field of mechanism design. His work continues to influence economic thought and policy-making, cementing his place as a leading figure in modern economics.
Quotes by Eric Maskin
If I'm a bank, and I'm making risky loans, I have an incentive, if I can, to make those loans using other people's money: in other words, to make highly leveraged loans.
If I buy a car, I use the car, you don't, and the market for cars works pretty well. But there are many other sorts of goods, often very important goods, which are not provided well through the market. Often, these go under the heading of public goods.
In various countries around the world, assets that had previously been in the hands of governments were sold off to the private sector in the hope that this would lead to a more efficient allocation, that these assets would be put to better use.
The Nobel Prize is not very important for the winners - they are usually pretty successful people already. But it is valuable as a way of drawing the public's attention to important work in economics.
It wasn't that Harvard was deliberately trying to overwork me, but I think I had a tendency to take on more things out of enthusiasm than were good for me.
This may not be the most serious problem in the world, but it is a familiar one: How do you divide a piece of cake equally between two children and also make sure that each of them sees it as a fair division?
Specifically, in the software industry, progress is highly sequential: progress is typically made through a large number of small steps, each building on the previous ones.
Perhaps one day earthquakes, hurricanes and financial crashes will all be predictable. But we don't have to wait until then for seismology, meteorology and economics to become sciences; they already are.
Prediction is certainly a valuable goal in science, but not the only one. Explanation is also important, and there are plenty of sciences that do a lot of explaining and not much predicting.