Economist
Alvin E. Roth, Cowinner of 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics, Began and Completed
Much of His Prize-Winning Research While a Pitt Professor
“Under his leadership, the Department of Economics at Pitt became, and is still
regarded as being, one of the leaders in experimental economics.”
PITTSBURGH—Alvin
E. Roth, announced today as cowinner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in economics for
his work in market design, began and completed much of the research on matching
and mechanism design—for which he won the Nobel—while he was the first
University of Pittsburgh Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Economics, from 1982 to
1998.
Roth won the prize for work in matching theory and its practical applications
in markets, such as how students are matched with schools, how doctors are
matched with hospital positions, or how kidney donors are matched with
recipients: While still at Pitt, Roth worked with graduate student Utku Unver
on a study that led to improvements in the design of the program to match
kidney donors with compatible kidney recipients.
“Roth’s work at Pitt consisted of a series of studies—theoretical,
institutional and experimental—exploring various properties of mechanisms by
which people are matched with positions,” explained Lise Vesterlund, the
current Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Economics at Pitt. “Central to
Prof. Roth’s work on market design has been the use of theory and laboratory
experiments. Under his leadership, the Department of Economics at Pitt became,
and is still regarded as being, one of the leaders in experimental economics,”
Vesterlund added.
Vesterlund says Roth’s study of the evolution of the market for medical interns
and residents and the algorithms used in matching new physicians to hospital
positions led to his involvement in redesigning the mechanism used for such
matchings. His work on the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) began in
1995, and the revised version was implemented in 1998. Roth’s subsequent work
has involved matching of students to public schools in Boston and New York.
Roth shared the prize with Lloyd Shapley, professor emeritus of economics and
mathematics at UCLA.
In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said: “Even
though these two researchers worked independently of one another, the combination
of Shapley’s basic theory and Roth’s empirical investigations, experiments, and
practical design has generated a flourishing field of research and improved the
performance of many markets. This year’s prize is awarded for an outstanding
example of economic engineering.”
While at Pitt, Roth was the recipient of the 1992 Chancellor’s Distinguished
Research Award. He also was a Fellow in the Center for Philosophy of Science
and a professor of business administration in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School
of Business. He is currently the George Gund Professor of Economics at Harvard.