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Leonid Hurwicz
Economist

Leonid Hurwicz

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Founding mechanism design and the idea of incentive compatibility.

Mechanism design · Incentive compatibility

Born
21 August 1917
Birthplace
Moscow
Died
24 June 2008

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Leonid Hurwicz

Leonid Hurwicz was a Polish-American economist who studied how institutions and rules shape outcomes. He shared the 2007 economics Nobel memorial prize with Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson.

Early life

Law to economics

Studied law in Warsaw before economics in London and Geneva; fled Europe during the Second World War.

Career

  1. 1941

    Research assistant

    Worked with Paul Samuelson and Oskar Lange.

  2. 1942–1946

    Cowles Commission

    Conducted economic research.

  3. 1951

    Minnesota

    Joined the University of Minnesota.

Selected work

Mechanism design

Studied how rules can produce desired outcomes.

Incentive compatibility

Explained the need for rules that align participants’ incentives with the intended result.

Nobel recognition

Shared the prize at ninety.

Beyond work

Wider interests

Pursued interests in languages, music and meteorology, and participated in Democratic Party politics.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Dong Oh. CC BY 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.