Americans Hall and Woodford win Nobel economics prize for work on stabilisation

US academics Robert Hall and Michael Woodford won the 2026 Nobel economics prize for "microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic ​stabilisation", the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

The two laureates developed new macroeconomic models that improved our ability ​to implement effective stabilisation policy, enabling well-timed fiscal and monetary policy measures ⁠that can reduce the intensity of damaging swings in the economy, Reuters reported.

"The laureates’ work ​has provided us with a stable theoretical foundation for the models that are now ​used by central banks and governments around the world," John Hassler, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a statement.

"With them, we are better equipped to deal ​with shocks in the economy, such as energy crises or sudden changes in how ​much households consume."

The economics prize, first awarded in 1969, is not one of the original five ‌awards ⁠created in the 1895 will of industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, but was established by Sweden's central bank.

The Nobel ​prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were announced last week.