Paul Milgrom | |
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Born |
Detroit, Michigan |
April 20, 1948
Residence | U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Fields | Economist |
Institutions |
Stanford University (since 1987) Yale University (1982-87) Northwestern University (1979‑83) |
Alma mater |
Stanford University MS (Statistics), 1978 PhD (Business) 1979 University of Michigan BA 1970 |
Doctoral advisor | Robert B. Wilson |
Doctoral students |
Susan Athey Joshua Gans Gillian Hadfield |
Known for |
Auction theory Incentive theory Market design |
Notable awards |
Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics (2008) 2012 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award Golden Goose Award (2014) |
Spouse | Eva Meyersson Milgrom |
Academic career | |
Information at IDEAS / RePEc |
Paul Robert Milgrom (born April 20, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American economist. He is the Shirley and Leonard Ely Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1987. Professor Milgrom is an expert in game theory, specifically auction theory and pricing strategies. He is the co-creator of the no-trade theorem with Nancy Stokey. He is the co-founder of several companies, the most recent of which, Auctionomics, provides software and services that create efficient markets for complex commercial auctions and exchanges.
Paul Milgrom was born to Abraham Isaac Milgrom (born in Toronto, Canada) and Anne Lillian Finkelstein (born in Detroit). He was the second of four sons. At the age of six, his family moved to Oak Park, Michigan and Milgrom attended the Dewey School and then Oak Park High School (Michigan). In high school, Milgrom learned to play and analyze chess. He soon shifted his interests in strategic games to bridge. Milgrom showed an early interest in mathematics and attended summer programs at Ohio State University and entered the Michigan Mathematics Prize Competition while in high school.
Milgrom graduated with high honors from the University of Michigan in 1970 with an A.B. in mathematics. He was also actively involved in the Vietnam War protest movement. He worked as an actuary for several years in San Francisco at the Metropolitan Insurance Company and then at the Nelson and Warren consultancy in Columbus, Ohio. Milgrom became a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 1974. In 1975, Milgrom enrolled for graduate studies at Stanford University in the MBA program. After his first year, he was invited to the Ph.D. program, earning an M.S. in statistics in 1978 and a Ph.D. in business in 1979. His dissertation on the theory of auctions (Milgrom, 1979a) won the Leonard Savage prize. This also led to the first of his several seminal articles on auction theory (Milgrom, 1979b). His thesis advisor, Robert B. Wilson, would later become his collaborator in designing the spectrum auction used by the Federal Communications Commission.