American economists Robert Hall and Michael Woodford win Nobel Prize in economics

STANFORD, CA — American economists Robert Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University have won the 2026 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored the two for their work on the “microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization,” saying they developed new models that have significantly improved the ability to carry out effective stabilization policy.

Their research helps explain how economies respond to shocks such as recessions and price spikes, and how central banks and governments can use policy to keep growth and inflation steady.

Hall is a professor emeritus at Stanford and a senior fellow emeritus at the Hoover Institution. Woodford is the John Bates Clark Professor of Economics at Columbia.