William S. Vickrey Ph.D.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1996
Co-nobelist: James A. Mirrlees

Economist, Mathematician. 'Fundamental contributions to economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information.' Solve real world problems. Interests: efficiency of public services, irrational budget accounting, excessive concern with inflation, insufficient attention to wasteful unemployment, macroeconomic stabilization, ethics, philosophy, world peace.

Rip van Winkle award for deep, uninterrupted concentration while attending seminars.

Quotations

1. An Indian economist stated that Vickrey had been the most helpful of foreign economic advisors. Vickrey had made new time tables, reduced energy consumption and improved service.

2. I have often heard a younger colleague report: "I went to give a talk at Columbia. There sat that tall white-haired man, asleep with his head against the wall. All of a sudden, without raising an eyelid, he mumbled the most penetrating question, and I wondered for a while whether I still had a paper…" Vickrey's biographer Jacques H. Drèze.