Americans Hall and Woodford win Nobel Prize in Economics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to American economists Robert Hall and Michael Woodford, in recognition of their research on “the microfoundations of macroeconomic stability,” work that has contributed to reshaping the understanding of how governments and central banks address inflation, recessions, and economic crises.

The Academy, based in Stockholm, announced that the prize would be shared equally between the two researchers, who reside in the United States, along with a monetary award of 12 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to approximately $1.2 million.

The research of Hall and Woodford focused on linking the decisions of individuals and firms to macroeconomic performance, providing a more precise theoretical framework for understanding the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on inflation, unemployment, and economic growth.

The prize committee explained that the laureates contributed to rebuilding the economic models used in formulating stabilization policies by grounding them in the behavior of consumers and firms, rather than relying solely on statistical relationships among macroeconomic indicators such as output, consumption, and prices.

Robert Hall is among the leading researchers on employment, inflation, and business cycles, and has played an influential role in documenting periods of recession and recovery in the U.S. economy. Michael Woodford is considered one of the foremost theorists of modern monetary economics, and his work has shaped many of the models that central banks rely on when designing monetary policy.