Nobel Prize in economics goes to Milgrom and Wilson

Two American economists have been awarded the Nobel Prize for economic sciences on Monday for their work to improve how auctions work, reports The Guardian. 

Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson were honored “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats," said Secretary General Göran Hansson for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

"Their discoveries have benefitted sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world," the prize committee said in a statement.

The prize, called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the last of the Nobel awards to be announced this year. Last week, five Americans were among the Laureates to receive prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature.

The coveted Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to the United Nations World Food Program for its efforts to combat hunger and food insecurity around the globe.

The economics prize has been given to 84 individuals between 1969 and 2019. Only two women have been recipients to date.

Laureates are presented with a Nobel diploma and medal, and share the prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (more than $1.1 million).