Best of #econtwitter - Nobel 2020 special edition

Oct 13, 2020

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.com

A Century of Economics and Engineering at Stanford by Beatrice Cherrier, Aurélien Saïdi :: SSRN

10:28 AM · Oct 12, 2020

130 Reposts · 355 Likes

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

5:34 PM · Oct 12, 2020

27 Reposts · 101 Likes

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.com

Robert Wilson - “Evolution of Game Theory into Multi-Person Decision Theory”

11:32 AM · Oct 12, 2020

15 Reposts · 52 Likes

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/

1:11 PM · Oct 12, 2020

93 Reposts · 306 Likes

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.org

Sequential equilibrium - Wikipedia

10:39 AM · Oct 12, 2020

11 Reposts · 63 Likes

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

11:54 AM · Oct 12, 2020

33 Reposts · 245 Likes

Natasha Sarin@NatashaRSarin

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

10:46 PM · Oct 12, 2020

13 Reposts · 91 Likes

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.com

Operations Research and the Rise of Applied Game Theory – A Nobel for Milgrom and Wilson

6:58 PM · Oct 12, 2020

25 Reposts · 63 Likes

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.com

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

11:35 AM · Oct 12, 2020

16 Reposts · 91 Likes

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.org

Paul Milgrom - Wikipedia

10:59 AM · Oct 12, 2020

18 Reposts · 70 Likes

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.edu

David Kreps Lauds 2020 Nobel Laureate Robert Wilson

11:50 PM · Oct 12, 2020

69 Reposts · 233 Likes

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)

simonbowmaker.com

3:12 PM · Oct 12, 2020

6 Reposts · 19 Likes

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

9:53 AM · Oct 12, 2020

754 Reposts · 1.6K Likes

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

11:07 AM · Oct 12, 2020

20 Reposts · 170 Likes

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.

12:17 PM · Oct 12, 2020

168 Reposts · 654 Likes

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.com

Paul Milgrom, Nobel Laureate - Marginal REVOLUTION