"For the improvements they have made to auction theory and for inventing new forms of auctioning for the benefit of sellers, buyers and taxpayers worldwide." With this motivation the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Monday that ithe 2020 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to two American scholars: Paul R. Milgrom e Robert B. Wilson, aged 72 and 83 respectively.
The two US academics they clarified not only how auctions work, but also the reasons they spithey cause some participants to behave in certain ways. Furthermore, have invented new formats for auctioning goods and services.
In particular, Wilson demonstrated "why rational bidders tend to bid below their best estimate of the common value: they are concerned about the curse of the victor, that is, to pay too much and lose”, explains the Stockholm Academy.
During the live announcement of the awards, Wilson was contacted by phone. In his time zone – that of the University of Stanford, in California – it was three in the morning: “It's very good news – he replied without particular frills – It's very early morning here…”.
When asked to talk about auctions, however, the Professor lent himself to more elaborate considerations, explaining that the advent of the Internet has had profound repercussions on these procedures, allowing them to be kept practically always open.
“I'm afraid that at the moment I won't be able to spend much on travel,” Wilson finally replied to those who asked him hotly what he will do with the million-dollar prize. “I'll probably just save them for my wife and kids. Saving while waiting for better times".
The Nobel Prize in Economics is not technically like the others, but a prize created in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden (Riskbank) for economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel.
