Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford Win the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

12 October 2026National

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Robert E. Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University on 12 October 2026, for work on the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation. The two Americans rebuilt macroeconomic models on the observed behaviour of households and firms, giving central banks a rigorous basis for steering interest rates against boom-bust cycles; Woodford's interest-rate rules underpin modern inflation targeting. The SEK 12 million prize is shared equally. Economics closed the six 2026 Nobel announcements, after optogenetics, IceCube, asymmetric synthesis, Anne Carson and Navi Pillay.

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The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences was instituted in 1968 and first awarded in 1969 to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen | It is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which also decides the Physics and Chemistry prizes | All Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm except the Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo

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