Roger Myerson

Roger Bruce Myerson (born 29 March 1951) is an American economist and co-winner, with Leonid Hurwicz and Eric Maskin, of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory." He has made contributions as an economist, as an applied mathematician, and as a political scientist.

Roger Myerson
Born	March 29, 1951 Boston, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University
Known for	Game theory, Mechanism design
Awards	Nobel Prize in Economics (2007)
Scientific career
Fields	Economist
Institutions	University of Chicago Northwestern University
Doctoral advisor	Kenneth Arrow

Biography

Roger Myerson was born on March 29, 1951 to a Jewish family.^[1] He attended Harvard University, where he received his A.B., S.M. (1973), and Ph.D. (1976), all in applied mathematics. From 1976 to 2001, he was a professor of economics at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Currently, he is the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.

Contributions

Among his scientific contributions to game theory and mechanism design, the following are noteworthy:

• "Graphs and Cooperation in Games," Mathematics of Operations Research 2 (1977), 225-229.
• "Two-Person Bargaining Problems and Comparable Utility," Econometrica 45 (1977), 1631-1637.
• "Refinements of the Nash Equilibrium Concept," International Journal of Game Theory 7 (1978), 73-80.
• "Incentive Compatibility and the Bargaining Problem," Econometrica 47 (1979), 61-73.
• "Optimal Auction Design," Mathematics of Operations Research 6 (1981), 58-73.
• "Mechanism Design by an Informed Principal," Econometrica 51 (1983), 1767-1797.
• "Two-Person Bargaining Problems with Incomplete Information," Econometrica 52 (1984), 461-487.
• "Bayesian Equilibrium and Incentive Compatibility," in Social Goals and Social Organization, edited by L. Hurwicz, D. Schmeidler, and Hugo Sonnenschein, Cambridge University Press (1985), 229-259.

He wrote a general textbook on game theory in 1991, and has also written on the history of game theory, including his review of the origins and significance of noncooperative game theory.^[2]

Myerson has worked on economic analysis of political institutions and written several major survey papers:

• "Analysis of Democratic Institutions: Structure, Conduct, and Performance," Journal of Economic Perspectives 9:1 (1995), 77-89.
• "Economic Analysis of Political Institutions: An Introduction," Advances in Economic Theory and Econometrics: Theory and Applications, volume 1, edited by D. Kreps and K. Wallis (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pages 46–65.
• "Theoretical Comparisons of Electoral Systems," European Economic Review 43 (1999), 671-697.

His recent work on democratization has raised critical questions about American policy in occupied Iraq.^[3]

Books by Professor Myerson

Myerson has published the following books:

• Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict, Harvard University Press, 1991.
• Probability Models for Economic Decisions, Duxbury Press, 2005.

References

1. JUF News: Nobel Prize winners have Jewish, Chicago connections
2. Myerson, Roger B. (1999), "Nash Equilibrium and the History of Economic Theory", Journal of Economic Literature 37, 37 (3): 1067–1082, doi:10.1257/jel.37.3.1067
3. Myerson, Roger B. (2006), "Federalism and Incentives for Success of Democracy", Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1: 3–23, doi:10.1561/100.00000002, S2CID 15296770

Other websites

• Webpage at the University of Chicago
• ABC News Chicago video interview^{[permanent dead link]}
• The scientific background to the 2007 Nobel prize: Mechanism Design Theory