Robert E. Hall, Michael Woodford win 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics
Unlike the original five Nobel Prizes, the economics award was created by Sweden's central bank in 1969
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford for their work on “the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization.”
“The laureates have helped us smooth out the economy’s peaks and troughs,” the academy said in a statement.
Robert E. Hall’s and Michael Woodford’s research has generated a paradigm shift in stabilisation policy. New Keynesian models, a result of their research, allow us to explain and quantify how stabilisation policy affects business cycles and are now used by central banks and finance ministries around the world.
The prestigious award is formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic is the final one given in the memory of Alfred Nobel.
According to John Hassler, the chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Science, the foundational work on macroeconomic stabilisation has delivered us “stable theoretical foundation for the models” that are used by the central banks and governments globally.
The work also better equipped the world to deal with shocks in the economy marred by “energy crises and sudden change in how much households consume.”
Hall is affiliated with Stanford University in California, and Woodford with Columbia University in New York. Woodford spoke to the committee on Monday saying, “It’s a tremendous honor, it’s a surprise.”
In 2025 three researchers won this prize for linking business innovation with economic growth and human welfare.
Unlike the original five Nobel Prizes, the economics award was created by Sweden's central bank in 1969.
American scholars dominate the list of laureates, while only three women have ever won, most recently Claudia Goldin in 2023 for her ground-breaking research on gender pay and employment gaps.
