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Robert B. Wilson

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For other people named Robert Wilson, see Robert Wilson (disambiguation).
Robert B. Wilson
Born (1937-05-16) May 16, 1937 (age 87)
Geneva, Nebraska, U.S.
EducationHarvard University (BA, MBA, DBA)
Known forGame theory in industrial organization
Sequential quadratic programming
AwardsGolden Goose Award (2014)
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015)
Nobel Prize in Economics (2020)
Scientific career
FieldsEconomist
Management science
InstitutionsStanford University
Harvard Law School
Doctoral advisorHoward Raiffa
Doctoral studentsClaude d'Aspremont Lynden
Robert Gibbons
Bengt R. Holmström
Paul Milgrom
Jean-Pierre Ponssard
Robert W. Rosenthal
Alvin E. Roth
Yuliy Sannikov

Robert Butler "Bob" Wilson, Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American economist and the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at Stanford University. He was jointly awarded the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, together with his Stanford colleague Paul R. Milgrom,[1] "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats."[2][3]

Wilson is known for his contributions to management science and business economics. His doctoral thesis introduced sequential quadratic programming, which became a leading iterative method for nonlinear programming. With other mathematical economists at the Stanford Business School, he helped to reformulate the economics of industrial organization and organization theory using non-cooperative game theory. His research on nonlinear pricing has influenced policies for large firms, particularly in the energy industry, especially electricity.

Early life and academic career

Wilson was born on May 16, 1937, in Geneva, Nebraska. He graduated from a high school in Nebraska and earned a full scholarship to Harvard University. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1959. He then completed his M.B.A. in 1961 and his D.B.A. in 1963 from the Harvard Business School.[4] He worked at the University of California, Los Angeles for a very brief time and then joined the faculty at Stanford University. He has been on the faculty of the Stanford Business School since 1964.[4] He was also an affiliated faculty member of Harvard Law School from 1993 to 2001.

Research

Wilson is known for research and teaching on market design, pricing, negotiation, and related topics concerning industrial organization and information economics. He is an expert on game theory and its applications. He has been a major contributor to auction designs and competitive bidding strategies in the oil, communication, and power industries, and to the design of innovative pricing schemes. His work on pricing of priority service for electric power has been implemented in the utility industry.

Wilson's 1968 Econometrica paper The Theory of the Syndicates[5] influenced a whole generation of economics, finance, and accounting students. The paper poses a fundamental question: Under what conditions does the expected utility representation describe the behavior of a group of individuals who choose lotteries and share risk in a Pareto-optimal way?

He has published about a hundred articles in professional journals and books since completing his education. He has been an associate editor of several journals, and delivered several public lectures.

In 1993, Wilson published a book on Nonlinear Pricing.[6] It is an encyclopedic analysis of tariff design and related topics for public utilities, including power, communications, and transport. The book won the 1995 Leo Melamed Prize, a prize awarded biannually by the University of Chicago for “outstanding scholarship by a business professor.”

Other contributions to game theory includes wage bargaining and strikes, and in legal contexts, settlement negotiations. He has authored some of the basic studies of reputational effects in predatory pricing, price wars, and other competitive battles.

Honors

Since Wilson completed the Bachelor, Master's, and Doctoral Degrees at Harvard College and the Harvard Business School, he has published about 100 articles in professional journals and books, for which he has received many honors.[7]

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained that it chose Wilson and Paul Milgrom as the co-recipients of the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics because "[t]heir theoretical discoveries have improved auctions in practice. . . . Their discoveries have benefitted sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world."[2] Alvin Roth (an economist who was a co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize and who had Wilson as his doctoral advisor) said that Wilson and Milgrom "haven’t just profoundly changed the way we understand auctions - they have changed how things are auctioned."[8]

Memberships and awards

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a designated ‘distinguished fellow’ of the American Economic Association, and a fellow, former officer and Council member of the Econometric Society. He was conferred an honorary Doctor of Economics degree in 1986 by the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. In 1995, he was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Chicago. In 2014, Wilson won a Golden Goose Award for his work involving auction design.[9]

He has won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015) in the Economics, Finance and Management category for his “pioneering contributions to the analysis of strategic interactions when economic agents have limited and different information about their environment”. With colleagues David M. Kreps and Paul Milgrom, he was awarded the 2018 John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science.

References

  1. ^ Business, Charles Riley, CNN. "Nobel Prize in economics awarded to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson". CNN. Retrieved 2020-10-12. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ a b "The Prize in Economic Sciences 2020" (PDF) (Press release). Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. October 12, 2020.
  3. ^ Riley, Charles. "Nobel Prize in economics awarded to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson for auction theory". CNN.
  4. ^ a b "RobertWilson". Stanford University. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  5. ^ Wilson, Robert (1968). "The Theory of Syndicates". Econometrica. 36 (1): 119–132. doi:10.2307/1909607. JSTOR 1909607.
  6. ^ Wilson, Robert B. (1993). Nonlinear Pricing. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511582-6 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "Robert Wilson". Graduate School of Stanford Business. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  8. ^ Smialek, Jeanna (October 12, 2020). "U.S. Auction Theorists Win the 2020 Nobel in Economics: Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson were honored for work that has pushed auctions into new and useful territory". The New York Times.
  9. ^ "Auction Design". The Golden Goose Award. Retrieved 2015-05-27.
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