Magical algorithms for matching markets: Lloyd Shapley and Alvin Roth - Nobel Laureates in Economic Sciences (2012)

摘要

It is a remarkable coincidence that the Special Section on Game Theory is appearing in Current Science immediately following the announcement, as recently as 15 October 2012, by the Royal Swedish Academy that The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2012 will be awarded to two game theorists, Alvin E. Roth, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, and Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA, and Lloyd S. Shapley, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. This is the third time in the past seven years that game theorists have bagged this coveted prize. In 2005, Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling received the prize 'for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game theory analysis', while in 2007, the prize was awarded to Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson 'for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory'. In the past decade, game theory (which is essentially equilibrium analysis of games) and mechanism design (which refers to design of games) have taken the centre-stage not only in economics but also in computer science, communications, and many interdisciplinary areas. This article attempts to capture the key contributions for which the 2012prize has been awarded and reflects on the phenomenal academic distinctions of the two laureates.