Stockholm - A trio of US economists Monday shared the Nobel Prize for Economics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced, citing Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson for their work in the field of mechanism theory. The Academy said the three had "laid the foundations of mechanism theory," which deals with the design of economic institutions.
Hurwicz, who was born 1917 in Moscow and is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, laid the basis for mechanism design theory, the Academy said, adding he was the oldest economics prize laureate to date.
The theory aimed at helping economists understand for instance "what trading mechanisms will realize the largest gains from trade?" the citation said.
Maskin and Myerson "further enhanced" the theory that also deals with the allocation of resources in fields including regulation schemes and voting, the Academy said.
The mechanism design theory "shows why an auction is typically the most efficient institution for the allocation of private goods" within a given group of potential buyers.
Maskin told reporters that he felt "an enormous sense of relief" when he heard that he had shared to prize with Hurwicz and Myerson.
On Hurwicz, who is 90, Maskin said "many of us had for years been hoping he would win," adding they were "concerned that time was running out" for the Russian-born laureate.
Maskin said it was "a tremendous honour" to share the prize with Hurwicz and Myerson, whom he described as an "old college friend."
Winning the Nobel Prize for Economics was "like winning the lottery," Maskin said, noting that there were many worthy candidates.
Myerson told Swedish broadcaster TV4 that it was "a huge honour," and "was hoping there would be a prize in this area" of economics.
The three laureates did not figure on one of the main online betting sites or a list prepared by Swedbank chief economist Hubert Fromlet.
Maskin, born 1950 in New York, is professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University in New Jersey while Myerson, born 1951 in Boston, is Glen A Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.
The prize - formally called The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - last year had gone to US economist Edmund S Phelps.
The trio each get a third of the prize that is worth 10 million kronor (1.53 million dollars) and will be handed over at a ceremony on December 10 in Stockholm.
The economics prize has been awarded since 1969, and no woman has to date been awarded it. American citizens or researchers at US institutions have dominated the prize.
It was not one of the original prizes endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
Last week, the Nobel prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were announced.
Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies of the United States and Martin Evans of Britain shared the Nobel Medicine Prize for their work on stem cells.
Peter Gruenberger of Germany and Albert Fert of France shared the physics prize for discoveries of a key technology used to read data on hard disks.
The chemistry prize was awarded to Gerhard Ertl of Germany for groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry.
British author Doris Lessing was awarded the literature prize while former US vice president Al Gore and the UN climate panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the peace prize.
The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, the other prizes are presented in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
