Nobel Prize Laureates, Bank of Israel Governor to Participate in Summer School on Political Economy

Three Nobel Prize laureates in economics – Prof. Kenneth Arrow, Prof. Eric Maskin and Prof. Roger Myerson – as well as Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Stanley Fischer, will participate in the 21st summer school on political economy at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University this week.

The summer school, which is being held under the auspices of the Institute for Advanced Studies and supported by the department of economics and the Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University, will take place from June 25 – July 6 on the Edmond J. Safra campus.

This year, the school will be headed by Prof. Eric Maskin of Princeton University and directed by Prof. Eyal Winter of the Hebrew University. The central topic to be addressed this year is that of political economy, why the political process affects economic outcomes, as well as how economic imperatives influence politics. Presentations will include behavior of leaders, political corruption, political violence, the link between economic development and growth. About 150 advanced graduate and postdoctoral students from the world's leading universities will participate in the school as well as leading academics and Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Stanley Fischer.

On the summer school and the Nobel Prize laureates:

The summer school in economics was established by Prof. Kenneth Arrow, the 1972 Nobel Prize laureate in economics. The aim of the school is to train economics students from different parts of the world and in so doing, contribute to the development of the field. Its graduates now hold leading teaching positions at the most prestigious universities in the world.

Prof. Eric Maskin, a student of Prof. Kenneth Arrow, received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2007 - together with Prof. Leonid Hurwicz and Prof. Roger Myerson - for laying the foundations for mechanism design theory.

They made a path-breaking contribution to mechanism design theory when they discovered a fundamental connection between the allocation to be implemented and the monetary transfers needed to induce informed agents to reveal their information truthfully. Mechanism design theory allows for people to distinguish situations in which markets work well from those in which they do not. The theory has helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes, and voting procedures. Today, the theory plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science.

Prof. Roger Myerson is an expert in game theory and political economy, and in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He believes that the American government should be much more involved in the mediation between the two sides in the conflict. He also believes that game theory is a key tool in the settlement of conflicts such the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.