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Leo Hurwicz
Born	August 21, 1917 (age 90) Moscow, Russia
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Warsaw University London School of Economics
Known for	Mechanism design
Awards	National Medal of Science (1990) Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (2007)
Scientific career
Fields	Economics
Institutions	University of Minnesota
Doctoral advisor	Tjalling Koopmans, Jacob Marschak (at the Cowles Commission)
Doctoral students	Daniel McFadden

Leonid "Leo" Hurwicz (born August 21, 1917) is Regents’ Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Minnesota. He initiated the development of mechanism design used in economics, political science and social science; he is also a pioneer in the application of game theory to economics. For that work, he was awarded the 2007 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, becoming the oldest recipient of any Nobel Prize.

Hurwicz shared the Economics Prize with Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson, who refined his work in the techniques of analyzing imperfect markets. Their work is used to help find the "most efficient method for allocating resources given the available information, including the incentives of those involved."

Family

Hurwicz was born in Moscow, Russia to a Jewish family a few months before the October Revolution. The family was Polish and had lived in Congress Kingdom (the part of Poland then within the Russian Empire) but had been displaced by World War I. Soon after Leonid's birth, the family returned to Warsaw, Poland. Hurwicz and his family experienced persecution by both the Bolsheviks and Nazism; he again became a refugee when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. His parents and brother fled Warsaw, only to be arrested and sent to Soviet labor camps. Hurwicz was forced to move to Switzerland, to Portugal, and finally in 1940 he emigrated to the United States. His family eventually joined him there.

Hurwicz hired Evelyn Jensen (born October 31, 1921), who grew up on a Wisconsin farm and was at the time an undergraduate in economics at the University of Chicago, as his teaching assistant during the 1940s. They married in 1944 and now live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have four children, Sarah, Michael, Ruth and Maxim.

Education and early career

In 1938, Hurwicz received his LL.M. degree from Warsaw University, and then studied at the London School of Economics with Nicholas Kaldor and Friedrich Hayek. In 1939 he moved to Geneva where he studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies and attended the seminar of Ludwig von Mises. After moving to the United States he continued his studies at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

In 1941 Hurwicz was a research assistant to Paul Samuelson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and to Oskar Lange at the University of Chicago. At Illinois Institute of Technology during the war, Hurwicz taught electronics to the U.S. Army Signal Corps. From 1942 to 1944, at the University of Chicago, he was a member of the faculty of the Institute of Meteorology and taught statistics in the Department of Economics. About 1942 his advisors were Jacob Marschak and Tjalling Koopmans at the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago, now the Cowles Foundation at Yale University.

Teaching and research

Hurwicz received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1945–1946. In 1946, he became an associate professor of economics at Iowa State College. From January 1942 until June 1946, he was a research associate for the Cowles Commission. Joining full time in October 1950 until January 1951, he was a visiting professor, assuming Koopman's classes in the Department of Economics, and led the commission's research on theory of resource allocation. About this time, he was also a research professor of economics and mathematical statistics at the University of Illinois, through the University of Chicago a consultant to the RAND Corporation, and a consultant to the U.S. Bureau of the Budget.

Hurwicz was recruited by Walter Heller to the University of Minnesota in 1951 where he became a professor of economics and mathematics in the School of Business Administration. In 1961 he became chairman of the School of Statistics, Regents Professor of Economics in 1969, and Curtis L. Carlson Professor of Economics in 1989.

When Eugene McCarthy ran for president of the U.S., Hurwicz served in 1968 as a Minnesota delegate to the Democratic Party Convention and a member of the Democratic Party Platform Committee.

In 1955 and again in 1958 Hurwicz was a visiting professor, and a fellow on the second visit, at Stanford University and there in 1959 published "Optimality and Informational Efficiency in Resource Allocation Processes" on mechanism design.

Hurwicz traveled to teach at a large number of schools primarily in the U.S. and Asia. He taught at Bangalore University in 1965 and during the 1980s at Tokyo University, People's University now known as Renmin University of China and the University of Indonesia. In the U.S. he was a visiting professor at Harvard in 1969 and the University of California, Berkeley in 1976 and Northwestern University twice, in 1988 and 1989, and the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998, the California Institute of Technology in 1999, and the University of Michigan in 2002. He was a visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois in 2001.

Hurwicz' interests include mathematical economics and modelling, and the theory of the firm. His published works in these fields date back to 1944. He is internationally renowned for his pioneering research on economic theory, particularly in the areas of mechanism and institutional design and mathematical economics. In the 1950s, he worked with Kenneth Arrow on non-linear programming; in 1972 Arrow became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. Hurwicz was the graduate advisor to Daniel McFadden, who received the prize in 2000.

Earlier economists often avoided analytic modelling of economic institutions. Hurwicz' work was instrumental in showing how economic models can provide a framework for the analysis of systems, such as capitalism and socialism, and how the incentives in such systems affect members of society. The theory of incentive compatibility that Hurwicz developed changed the way many economists thought about outcomes, explaining why centrally planned economies may fail and how incentives for individuals make a difference in decision making.

Hurwicz serves on the editorial board of several journals. He co-edited and contributed to two collections for Cambridge University Press: Studies in Resource Allocation Processes (1978, with Kenneth Arrow), and Social Goals and Social Organization (1987, with David Schmeidler and Hugo Sonnenschein). His recent publications include the papers "Economic Theory" (2003, with Thomas Marschak), "Review of Economic Design" (2001, with Stanley Reiter), and "Advances in Mathematical Economics" (2003, with Marcel K. Richter).

Hurwicz was named Regents Professor in the Department of Economics in 1969. He taught graduate school as professor emeritus most recently in the fall of 2006. Hurwicz retired from full time teaching in 1988.

Hurwicz has taught subjects ranging from theory to welfare economics, public economics, mechanisms and institutions, and mathematical economics. His current research, as described by the University of Minnesota, is in "comparison and analysis of systems and techniques of economic organization, welfare economics, game-theoretic implementation of social choice goals, and modeling economic institutions."

Awards and honors

Hurwicz was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1947, and in 1969 served as the society's president. Hurwicz was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965. In 1974 he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences and in 1977 was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. Hurwicz received the National Medal of Science in 1990 in Behavorial and Social Science "for his pioneering work on the theory of modern decentralized allocation mechanisms." The honor was presented by the President of the United States George H. W. Bush.

He served on the United Nations Economic Commission in 1948 and the U.S. National Research Council in 1954. In 1964 he was a member of the National Science Foundation Commission on Weather Modification. He is a member of the American Academy of Independent Scholars (1979) and a Distinguished Scholar of the California Institute of Technology (1984).

Hurwicz has received six honorary doctorates, from Northwestern University (1980), the University of Chicago (1993), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1989), Keio University (1993), Warsaw School of Economics (1994) and Universität Bielefeld (2004). His is an honorary visiting professor of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Economics (1984).

In October 2007, Hurwicz shared The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Eric Maskin of the Institute for Advanced Study and Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory". During a telephone interview, a representative of the Nobel Foundation told Hurwicz and his wife that Hurwicz is the oldest person to win the Nobel Prize. Hurwicz said, "I hope that others who deserve it also got it." When asked which of all the applications of mechanism design he was most pleased to see he said welfare economics. The winners applied game theory, a field advanced by mathematician John Forbes Nash, to discover the best and most efficient means to reach a desired outcome, taking into account individuals' knowledge and self-interest, which may be hidden or private. Mechanism design has been used to model negotiations and taxation, voting and elections, to design auctions such as those for communications bandwidth, elections and labor talks and for pricing stock options.

Notes

1. ^ Ohlin, Pia (15 October 2007). "US trio wins Nobel Economics Prize". AFP via Yahoo! News. Retrieved 2007-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. ^ Higgins, Charlotte (15 October 2007). "Americans win Nobel for economics". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. "U of M Economist Wins Nobel Prize". Minnesota Public Radio. 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
4. ^ "Nobel Laureates". Frequently Asked Questions. Nobelprize.org. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
5. ^ Bergman, Jonas and Kennedy, Simon (15 October 2007). "Hurwicz, Maskin and Myerson Win Nobel Economics Prize". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2007-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. ^ Hughes, Art (15 October 2007). "Leonid Hurwicz -- commanding intellect, humble soul, Nobel Prize winner". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved 2007-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. ^ "A house resolution (on the occasion of Hurwicz's 90th birthday and the University of Minnesota Department of Economics recognition dinner on [[14 April]] [[2007]])". Legislature of the State of Minnesota (image via University of Minnesota, umn.edu). 9 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help)
8. ^ Clement, Douglas (Fall 2006). "Intelligent Designer" (PDF). Minnesota Economics. Department of Economics, University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts: 6–9. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
9. ^ Horwath, Justin (16 October 2007). "U economics prof awarded Nobel Prize". The Minnesota Daily. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. ^ "Perspectives on Leo Hurwicz, A Celebration of 90 Years (timeline)" (PDF). University of Minnesota (econ.umn.edu). 14 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. ^ "Five-Year Report, 1942–46, XII. Biographical and Bibliographic Notes". Cowles Foundation, Yale University. 1942–1946. Retrieved 2007-10-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
12. Ransom, Greg (15 October 2007). "Hurwicz Took Part in the Mises Seminar". Mises.org Weblog, Ludwig von Mises Institute. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. "Report for 1942". Cowles Foundation, Yale University. 1942. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
14. Simon, Herbert A. (28 September 1998) . An Empirically-Based Microeconomics (Raffaele Mattioli Lectures). Cambridge University Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-5216-2412-6. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
15. "Report for 1950–1951". Cowles Foundation, Yale University. 1951. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
16. "Major Works of Leonid Hurwicz". The history of Economic Thought. cepa.newschool.edu. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
17. ^ Morrison, Deanne (15 October 2007). "University professor wins Nobel Prize". UMN News, Regents of the University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2007-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
18. "All Laureates in Economics". Nobelprize.org. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
19. Myerson, Roger B. (2007-02-28), Fundamental Theory of Institutions: A Lecture in Honor of Leo Hurwicz (pdf), University of Chicago, p. 2, retrieved 2007-10-15. Hurwicz Lecture originally presented at the North American meetings of the Econometric Society, at the University of Minnesota on 2006-06-22.
20. Hurwicz, Leonid and Reiter, Stanley (22 May 2006). Designing Economic Mechanisms. Cambridge University Press. pp. Frontmatter (PDF) via Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-5218-3641-7. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
21. "University of Minnesota Professor Leonid Hurwicz wins Nobel Prize in economics" (Press release). Regents of the University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
22. "Academic Exchange with Foreign Institutions". Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Economics. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
23. "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2007" (Press release). Nobel Foundation. 15 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-25. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "(nobelprize.org)" ignored (help)
24. "Leonid Hurwicz - Interviews". Nobel Foundation (nobelprize.org). 15 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
25. ^ Tong, Vinnie (Associated Press) (15 October 2007). "U.S. Trio Wins Nobel Economics Prize". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2007-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

• Hurwicz, Leonid and Reiter, Stanley (22 May 2006). Designing Economic Mechanisms. Cambridge University Press. pp. Frontmatter (PDF) via Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-5218-3641-7. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• "Perspectives on Leo Hurwicz (conference program and photos)". University of Minnesota (econ.umn.edu). 14 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Clement, Douglas (Fall 2006). "Intelligent Designer (cover story)" (PDF). Minnesota Economics. Department of Economics, University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts: 6–9. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
• Hurwicz, L. (1973). The design of mechanisms for resource allocation, Amer. Econ. Rev., 63, pp. 1-30.
• Fonseca, Gonçalo L. (author and maintainer). "Major Works of Leonid Hurwicz, in Leonid Hurwicz, 1917-". History of Economic Thought Website, The New School (newschool.edu). Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)

External link

• "Leo Hurwicz". University of Minnesota Department of Economics. Retrieved 2007-10-15.

v t e Laureates of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences
1969–1975	1969: Ragnar Frisch / Jan Tinbergen 1970: Paul A. Samuelson 1971: Simon Kuznets 1972: John R. Hicks / Kenneth J. Arrow 1973: Wassily Leontief 1974: Gunnar Myrdal / Friedrich August von Hayek 1975: Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich / Tjalling C. Koopmans
1976–2000	1976: Milton Friedman 1977: Bertil Ohlin / James E. Meade 1978: Herbert A. Simon 1979: Theodore W. Schultz / Sir Arthur Lewis 1980: Lawrence R. Klein 1981: James Tobin 1982: George J. Stigler 1983: Gérard Debreu 1984: Richard Stone 1985: Franco Modigliani 1986: James M. Buchanan Jr. 1987: Robert M. Solow 1988: Maurice Allais 1989: Trygve Haavelmo 1990: Harry M. Markowitz / Merton H. Miller / William F. Sharpe 1991: Ronald H. Coase 1992: Gary S. Becker 1993: Robert W. Fogel / Douglass C. North 1994: John C. Harsanyi / John F. Nash Jr. / Reinhard Selten 1995: Robert E. Lucas Jr. 1996: James A. Mirrlees / William Vickrey 1997: Robert C. Merton / Myron S. Scholes 1998: Amartya Sen 1999: Robert A. Mundell 2000: James J. Heckman / Daniel L. McFadden
2001–present	2001: George A. Akerlof / A. Michael Spence / Joseph E. Stiglitz 2002: Daniel Kahneman / Vernon L. Smith 2003: Robert F. Engle III / Clive W.J. Granger 2004: Finn E. Kydland / Edward C. Prescott 2005: Robert J. Aumann / Thomas C. Schelling 2006: Edmund S. Phelps 2007: Leonid Hurwicz / Eric S. Maskin / Roger B. Myerson 2008: Paul Krugman 2009: Elinor Ostrom / Oliver E. Williamson 2010: Peter A. Diamond / Dale T. Mortensen / Christopher A. Pissarides 2011: Thomas J. Sargent / Christopher A. Sims 2012: Alvin E. Roth / Lloyd S. Shapley 2013: Eugene F. Fama / Lars Peter Hansen / Robert J. Shiller 2014: Jean Tirole 2015: Angus Deaton 2016: Oliver Hart / Bengt Holmström 2017: Richard H. Thaler 2018: William Nordhaus / Paul Romer 2019: Abhijit Banerjee / Esther Duflo / Michael Kremer 2020: Paul Milgrom / Robert B. Wilson 2021: David Card / Joshua Angrist / Guido Imbens 2022: Ben Bernanke / Douglas Diamond / Philip H. Dybvig 2023: Claudia Goldin 2024: Daron Acemoglu / Simon Johnson / James A. Robinson

• Current events from October 2007
• 1917 births
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• American economists
• Fellows of the Econometric Society
• Guggenheim Fellowships
• Jewish American scientists
• Living people
• Members and associates of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• National Medal of Science laureates
• Nobel laureates in Economics
• People from Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Polish Jews
• University of Chicago faculty
• University of Illinois faculty
• University of Minnesota faculty
• Warsaw University alumni