Press ReleaseOctober 9, 2002 Arlington, VA — The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - the Nobel Prize in Economics - to George Mason University professor Dr. Vernon L. Smith for his contributions to the economic sciences. Dr. Smith, an active researcher, professor and faculty member, pioneered the field of experimental economics nearly 50 years ago.
Dr. Smith is the second George Mason University scholar to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. In 1986 Professor James M. Buchanan, Jr. received the award for his pathbreaking work on public choice theory.
Dr. Smith pioneered the use of laboratory experiments in evaluating the performance and function of markets. Before 1956, when Dr. Smith completed his first experiment, economic theory assumed markets are efficient only with a large number of buyers and sellers. Experimental methods were the first to test such theories. These tests have demonstrated markets can be efficient even with very few participants and additionally revealed that market efficiency depends crucially on the institutions that govern markets - "rules of the game" that affect both individual behavior and overall market outcomes.
Results of experiments have given economists a deeper understanding of the actual workings of real-world markets and the institutions, and have helped guide public policy in the design and testing of a pollution permit trading system, and electric power and water markets.
Dr. Smith is the founder and research scholar at the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES), a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association, and a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1995. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and is a research fellow and board member of the Mercatus Center. In 2001, due to a generous gift from the Charles G. Koch Foundation, Dr. Smith and his ICES colleagues relocated to George Mason University.
He received a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He has authored or co-authored more than 12 books and 250 articles on capital theory, finance, natural resource economics and experimental economics.
We colleagues and friends of Vernon join economists around the world in congratulating him and celebrating his much-deserved prize.
For more information about Dr. Vernon Smith, including background and media materials, see:
- PDF Version of this Press Release
- Smith Biography PDF
- Smith CV PDF
- Why Experimental Economics? PDF
- FAQ About Experimental Economics PDF
- George Mason University
- George Mason University Department of Economics
- Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Dr. Smith will be available to members of the media at 11:00 a.m., October 9, 2002, in the atrium of the George Mason University Law School at 3301 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Va. Please call (703) 993-4941 to confirm. For more information, to confirm press conference time and location, or media interview requests please call (703) 993-4941.
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