MIT Alum Wins Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

Robert J. Shiller SM ’68, PhD ‘72, whose empirical analysis of asset prices has shown that stock prices are less-tightly linked to future dividends than previously thought, will share the 2013 Nobel Prize in economic sciences.

Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale University who the New York Times calls “an innovator in incorporating psychology into economics,” will receive the award on December 10 in Stockholm.

“Alumnus Robert J. Shiller wins Nobel Prize in economic sciences,” MIT News

The academy cited Shiller’s work, dating to the early 1980s, showing that stock prices are not as tightly linked to future dividends as the previous theory had held, but can become rapidly inflated. However, Shiller found, such swings in the market also lend themselves to a level of long-term predictability, since market corrections tend to ensue.

Listen to a telephone interview with Shiller recorded immediately following the announcement. His Nobel lecture, which will be webcast live, will take please on Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 7:30 a.m. EST.

Shiller and post-doctoral researcher James Rothman, who will share a 2013 Nobel in medicine/physiology, become the 79^th and 80^th MIT-connected Nobel winners. Shiller is the 31^st MIT alumnus to win the Nobel Prize and the first alumnus since Adam G. Riess ’92 won the 2011 prize in physics for his observations of distant supernovae that helped reveal that the universe is rapidly expanding.

The full list of Nobel Prize-winning MIT alumni, descending by award year, is listed below.

2013: Shiller 2011: Riess 2009: Oliver E. Williamson ’55, economics sciences 2008: Paul Krugman PhD ’77, economic sciences 2007: Wei M. Hao SM ’12, peace 2006: Andrew Fire PhD ’83, medicine/physiology; George Smoot ’66, PhD ’71, physics 2005: Robert Aumann SM ’52, PhD ’55, economics sciences 2002: Robert Horvitz ’68, medicine/physiology 2001: George Akerlof PhD ’66, economic sciences; Kofi Annan SM ’72, peace; Eric Cornell PhD ’90, physics; Leland Hartwell PhD ’64, medicine/physiology; Joseph Stiglitz PhD ’66, economics sciences; Carl Wieman ’73, physics 1999: Robert Mundell ’99, economics sciences 1998: Robert Laughlin PhD ’79, physics 1997: Robert Merton PhD ’70, economic sciences; William Phillips ’76, physics 1990: Elias Corey, Jr. ’48, PhD ’51, chemistry; Henry Kendall PhD ’55, physics 1989: Sidney Altman ’60, chemistry 1987: Charles J. Pedersen SM ’27, chemistry 1980: Lawrence Klein PhD ’44, economic sciences 1976: Burton Richter ’52, PhD ’56, physics 1972: John Schrieffer ’53, physics 1969: Murray Gell-Man PhD ’51, physics 1966: Robert Mulliken ’17, chemistry 1965: Richard Feynman ’39, physics; Robert Burns Woodward ’36, PhD ’37, chemistry 1956: William Shockley PhD ’36, physics