Best of #econtwitter - Nobel 2020 special edition

Given the large quantity of good tweets on the topic of this year’s Nobel laureates, today we bring you a special edition of Beset of #Econtwitter newsletter.

Good threads

Beatrice Cherrier @Undercoverhist

Auction prize: 1) some intellectual context, Roth and Wilson interview each other aeaweb.org/articles?id=10… 2) some historical context (shameless self-promotion) a prize for the importation of an engineering view into econ read.dukeupress.edu/hope/article-a… / papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… [draft]

papers.ssrn.comA Century of Economics and Engineering at Stanford by Beatrice Cherrier, Aurélien Saïdi :: SSRNThis paper documents the disciplinary exchanges between economists and engineers at Stanford throughout the 20th century. We elucidate how this cross-fertilizat

Anthony Lee Zhang @AnthonyLeeZhang

Some notes on practical auctions vs auction theory The year's 1959. The FCC allocates radio spectrum basically by soliciting applications and evaluating. Very discretionary process, also very time and resource intensive

Ben Golub @ben_golub

One of my favorite things about Bob Wilson, co-winner of today's prize, is how gentle a giant he is, how modest yet understatedly charismatic and funny. This rare recording gives a sense. 1/5 found this thanks to @mariannollar

youtube.comRobert Wilson - “Evolution of Game Theory into Multi-Person Decision Theory”ROBERT WILSON, Professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University “Evolution of Game Theory into Multi-Person Decision Theory” http://www.imbs.uci.edu/

Peter G. Klein @petergklein

Besides his contributions to auction theory, Milgrom is one of the most important figures in modern organizational economics. His 1992 book with John Roberts, "Economics, Organizations, and Management," had a huge influence on the teaching of managerial economics. 1/

Olivier Gossner @O_Goss_

Kreps and Wilson introduced in 1982 the notion of “sequential equilibrium”, a way to select between different Nash equilibria in a game with sequential moves. 1/15 this is a hugely important notion taught in all grad schools

en.wikipedia.orgSequential equilibrium - Wikipedia

Ben Golub @ben_golub

Another thing about Wilson—his mentoring record. Restricting attention to Nobel laureates, students he closely advised include Holmstrom, Milgrom, and Roth. I have heard that he also was also an important influence on Myerson. 1/2

Natasha Sarin @NatashaRSarin

@causalinf This from Al Roth's blog today is so wonderful. marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2020/10/finall…

Links to longer summaries

Kevin Bryan @Afinetheorem

New post: Operations Research and the Rise of Applied Game Theory: A Nobel for Milgrom and Wilson. It should go without saying that I consider this a well-deserved and overdue prize!

afinetheorem.wordpress.comOperations Research and the Rise of Applied Game Theory – A Nobel for Milgrom and WilsonToday’s Nobel Prize to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson is the capstone of an incredibly fruitful research line which began in the 1970s in a few small departments of Operations Research. Game …

Scott Kominers @skominers

I couldn't be more thrilled for Milgrom and Wilson, this year's economics @NobelPrize laureates. They've transformed auction theory and practice, literally bringing the field to life. And they've inspired many economists worldwide -- including me.

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Joshua Gans @joshgans

Journalists out there. Paul Milgrom has the longest and most comprehensive Wikipedia page of any economist. Today was the day we worked on it for. Use it!

en.wikipedia.orgPaul Milgrom - Wikipedia

Paul Oyer @pauloyer

Here is an extremely useful (and totally non-technical) explanation of the contributions of Bob Wilson written by David Kreps.

gsb.stanford.eduDavid Kreps Lauds 2020 Nobel Laureate Robert Wilson“Bob brought economic theory to the real world, both as a mechanism for understanding ‘how things work’ and then in the design of better institutions.”

Simon Bowmaker @SimonBowmaker

Congratulations to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson for their Nobel award! Here is the interview I did with Paul for The Art and Practice of Economics Research (@Stanford, @StanfordGSB, @SIEPR, @Susan_Athey)

How to explain to your non-econ friends

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

Robert Wilson – awarded this year’s Prize in Economic Sciences – showed why rational bidders tend to place bids below their own best estimate of the common value: they are worried about the winner’s curse – that is, about paying too much and losing out. #NobelPrize

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

“Auction theory” is going to sound very obscure to most people but these guys came up with the auction format the FCC (and now lots of other regulators) use to auction off radio spectrum, one of the big underpinnings of the modern mobile economy. https://t.co/Hg3Fuzvh0N

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

BREAKING NEWS: The 2020 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.” #NobelPrize https://t.co/tBAblj1xf8

Joshua Gans @joshgans

My daughter asked what Milgrom and Wilson did to win the Nobel prize. I decided to see if I could explain it using the 1,000 most common words.

Non-economics but still good

Eva Vivalt @evavivalt

.@tylercowen's post (marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…) on Paul Milgrom mentions Paul met his wife while seated next to her at a previous Nobel Prize dinner. The full story, as I heard them recount once, is pretty great: 1/

marginalrevolution.comPaul Milgrom, Nobel Laureate - Marginal REVOLUTIONMost of all this is a game theory prize and an economics of information prize, including game theory and asymmetric information. Much of the work has had applications to auctions and finance. Basically Milgrom was the most important theorist of the 1980s, during the high point of economic theory a…

pupu tintin @pupu_tintin

Just read somewhere Wilson, speaking via phone to an audience in Stockholm, initially struggled to think of an auction that he had participated in, but then said. “My wife points out to me that we bought ski boots on eBay. I guess that was an auction.” Cute! https://t.co/DFyG6XWe16

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

BREAKING NEWS: The 2020 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.” #NobelPrize https://t.co/tBAblj1xf8

W. Matthew Alampay Davis @wmdecon

Revenue equivalence

Stanford University @Stanford

The #NobelPrize committee couldn't reach Paul Milgrom to share the news that he won, so his fellow winner and neighbor Robert Wilson knocked on his door in the middle of the night.

^recommended