Eric Maskin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eric Maskin
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Maskin in 2009
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| Born | December 12, 1950 New York City, U.S.
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| Institution | Harvard University Institute for Advanced Study Massachusetts Institute of Technology Princeton University University of Cambridge |
| Field | Game theory |
| Doctoral advisor |
Kenneth Arrow |
| Doctoral students |
Abhijit Banerjee Drew Fudenberg Robert W. Vishny Mathias Dewatripont David S. Scharfstein Jean Tirole |
| Contributions | Mechanism design |
| Awards | Nobel Memorial Prize (2007) |
| Information at IDEAS / RePEc | |
Eric Stark Maskin (born December 12, 1950) is an American economist and mathematician. He is famous for his work in game theory and mechanism design. In 2007, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson. They received the award for creating the basic ideas behind "mechanism design theory."
Today, Eric Maskin is a professor at Harvard University. He teaches both economics and mathematics. Before returning to Harvard in 2011, he taught at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University.
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Early Life and Education
Eric Maskin was born in New York City on December 12, 1950. He grew up in Alpine, New Jersey. He finished high school in Tenafly in 1968.
He went to Harvard College and earned a degree in mathematics in 1972. Later, he continued his studies at Harvard University. He received his master's degree in applied mathematics in 1974. In 1976, he earned his Ph.D. (doctorate) in applied mathematics. During his studies, he also spent time as a visiting student at Darwin College, Cambridge in England.
A Career in Economics
After finishing his Ph.D. in 1976, Maskin became a research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. The next year, he started teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1985, he returned to Harvard as a professor of economics. He stayed there until 2000.
In 2000, he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He also directs a summer school for economics students in Jerusalem. In 2011, he went back to Harvard University as a top professor.
Understanding Mechanism Design
Eric Maskin has worked on many parts of economic theory. This includes game theory, which studies how people make decisions when their choices affect others. He also works on how to create rules or "mechanisms" to get the best results in different situations. This is called mechanism design.
For example, imagine you want to design a fair way to choose a class president. Mechanism design helps figure out the best voting rules so that the person who truly represents the class wins. Maskin's work helps understand how to set up systems that encourage people to act in ways that lead to good outcomes for everyone.
He also studied dynamic games, which are games that happen over time. With another economist, Jean Tirole, he developed the idea of "Markov perfect equilibrium." This helps explain how people make choices in ongoing situations. His research also looks at different ways to vote and why some people have more money than others.
Recognitions and Awards
Maskin is a member of several important academic groups. These include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society. He was the president of the Econometric Society in 2003.
In 2014, he was a visiting professor at Covenant University in Nigeria. He also received an honorary degree from HEC Paris in 2017. He helps judge the Infosys Prize for social sciences. He is also the chairman of the advisory board for the International Economics Olympiad, a competition for students.
Maskin has also suggested a voting method called "Total Vote Runoff." He believes it can fix problems with other voting systems. This method aims to make sure the winner has wide support.
Views on Software Patents
Eric Maskin has shared his thoughts on software patents. He believes that these patents might actually slow down new ideas, rather than encouraging them. He argues that industries like software and computers have always been very creative, even when patent protection was not very strong.
Maskin thinks that in fast-changing industries, new ideas often build on older ones. In such cases, patents might make it harder for companies to innovate. He and his co-author, James Bessen, studied what happened in the 1980s when software patents became more common. They found that companies did not necessarily create more new things or become more productive, which goes against what some people might expect.
See also
- List of economists
- Mechanism design
- List of Jewish Nobel laureates
