Prof. Eric S. Maskin
Nobel Laureate for Economics and Adams University Professor at Harvard’s Department of Economics in Cambridge,January 2024
Biography:
Professor Eric Stark Maskin is an American economist who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics in 2007 “for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory”, the branch of economics concerned with “economic engineering”. Given an economic or social goal, mechanism design determines whether it is possible to build an institution (or mechanism) that will achieve that goal. Professor Maskin is the Adams University Professor and Professor of Economics and Mathematics at Harvard University and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Peace Foundation.
Eric Maskin graduated from Tenafly High School in New Jersey in 1968 and attended Harvard University where he received his A.B. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. After he earned his doctorate Dr. Maskin went to the University of Cambridge in 1976 where he was a postdoctoral fellow. He was a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1977-1984 and from 1985-2000 at Harvard where he was named the Louis Berkman Professor of Economics in 1997. In 2000 he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, to become the Albert O. Hirschman Professor. He rejoined the Havard faculty in 2012.
Much of Professor Maskin’s early work in the mid 1970s was in the area of “implementation” theory, which addresses the question of when one can devise procedural rules ensuring that society will make the best choice from among a set of alternatives. A vast literature on implementation, influenced by Professor Maskin’s groundbreaking work, has since evolved. In the early 1980s Professor Maskin began his work on the subject of “optimal” auctions, exploring the question of what sort of auctions or selling procedures are best from the standpoint of different objectives. Partly as a result of this work, Professor Maskin was asked in the early 1990s to give advice to the Bank of Italy on possible reforms in their system of auctioning treasury bonds.
Today Professor Maskin works in diverse areas of economic theory including game theory, political economy, contract theory and social choice theory. Much of his current research focuses on coalition formation, which methods of voting best promote democratic values, and why income inequality arises.
Professor Maskin’s work has had a deep influence on many areas of economics, political science and law and has been drawn on extensively by researchers in industrial organization, finance, development and public economies.
Lectures Professor Maskin has given on his work include, among others, the Churchill Lectures at Cambridge University, the Kenneth Arrow Lectures at Stanford University, the Alfred Marshall Lecture of the European Economic Association, the Seattle Lecture of the Econometric Society Eighth World Congress, the Vilfredo Pareto Lecture in Tel Aviv and the Lionel McKenzie Lecture at the University of Rochester.
Professor Maskin is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Past-President of the Econometric Society, the Game Theory Society and the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the European Economic Association, an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s, Jesus, and Darwin Colleges in Cambridge University and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He was named Honorary Professor at 18 universities including Tsinghua University. He has received eighteen honorary doctorate degrees including from Cambridge, Georgetown and Hebrew Universities and was awarded the Erik Kempe Award in Environmental Economics in 2007. Professor Maskin has served as Editor or Associate Editor for many journals including The Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economics Letters.
Topic of keynote speech:
- Why globalization has failed to reduce inequality
Schedule:
Monday, January 15, 2024:
14:00 Public keynote speech and dialogue at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok
– Further information and free seat reservation: phone 02-218-3126, email int.off@chula.ac.th, supavij.v@chula.ac.th (www.inter.chula.ac.th)
Tuesday, January 16, 2024:
10:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at the Bank of Thailand in Bangkok
– Further information: phone 02-283-6809, email pimladp@bot.or.th (www.bot.or.th)
14:00 Public keynote speech and dialogue at the Parliament of Thailand hosted by King Prajadhipok’s Institute in Bangkok
– Further information and free seat reservation: phone 02-141-9511, email kpi-bridges@kpi.ac.th (www.kpi.ac.th)
Tuesday, January 18, 2024:
14:00 Public keynote speech and dialogue at the United Nations University in Tokyo
– Further information and free seat reservation: phone 03-5467-1212, email dubois@unu.edu (www.unu.edu)