The Latest on the Nobel prize in economics (all times local):
8:55 a.m.
Oliver Hart of Harvard University and Bengt Holmstrom of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been so influential for so long that their Nobel prize in economics Monday came as no surprise to other economists. They have done groundbreaking work on the best ways to design contracts.
Paul Krugman, a newspaper columnist and economist who won the Nobel himself in 2008, tweeted: “Hart and Holmstrom so obviously deserving that my first thought was ‘didn’t they have it already?’ “
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8:05 a.m.
Pennsylvania State University economist Ran Shorrer, who taught contract theory as a graduate student at Harvard, says Hart and Holmstrom have had a huge influence on the way corporations decide to pay executives.
He says that “any modern compensation scheme is informed by their work.”
He describes Hart as “very polite. Very British… He’s a great guy. He is a very senior guy, but he is very generous with his time.”