Eric Maskin

Infobox Scientist
name = Eric Maskin


image_size = 180px
birth_date = December 12, 1950
birth_place = New York City, New York USA
nationality = United States
field = Economics
work_places = Institute for Advanced Study Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard University Princeton University
alma_mater = Harvard University
known_for = Game theory, mechanism design
prizes = Nobel Memorial Prize (2007)

Eric Stark Maskin (born December 12, 1950) is a American economist and Nobel laureate recognized with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory." [cite press release |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2007/press.html |title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2007 |date=October 15, 2007 |accessdate=2008-08-15 |publisher=Nobel Foundation] He is the Albert O. Hirschman Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, and a visiting lecturer with the rank of Professor at Princeton University. [ [http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/10/16/news/19009.shtml Economics professor wins Nobel - The Daily Princetonian ] ]

Biography

Maskin was born in New York City, New York on December 12, 1950, to a non-religious Jewish family, and grew up in Alpine, New Jersey. [Silverstein, Marilyn. [http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/110807/njNobelWinner.html "Nobel winner who's at home with Einstein"] , "New Jersey Jewish News", November 8, 2007. Accessed January 22, 2008. "A native of New York, Maskin grew up in New Jersey, in a nonreligious Jewish home in the town of Alpine."] He graduated from Tenafly High School in Tenafly, New Jersey in 1968 [ [http://www.tenaflynj.org/filestorage/68/470/10-October_15.pdf Minutes of Library Board Meeting] , Tenafly Public Library, dated October 15, 2007. Accessed January 22, 2008.] , and attended Harvard University where he received his A.B. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. After he earned his doctorate, Maskin went to the University of Cambridge in 1976 where he was a research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. He taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1977-1984 and from 1985-2000 at Harvard University, where he was the Louis Berkman Professor of Economics. In 2000, he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

Maskin has worked in diverse areas of economic theory, such as game theory, the economics of incentives, and contract theory. He is particularly well known for his papers on mechanism design/implementation theory and dynamic games. His current research projects include comparing different electoral rules, examining the causes of inequality and studying coalition formation. He is a Fellow of the "American Academy of Arts and Sciences", "Econometric Society", and the "European Economic Association", and a Corresponding Fellow of the "British Academy". He was president of the "Econometric Society" in 2003.

Software patents

Maskin suggested that software patents inhibit innovation rather than stimulate progress. Software, semiconductor, and computer industries have been innovative despite historically weak patent protection, he argued. Innovation in those industries has been sequential and complementary, so competition can increase firms' future profits. In such a dynamic industry, "patent protection may reduce overall innovation and social welfare." A natural experiment occurred in the 1980s when patent protection was extended to software," wrote Maskin. "Standard arguments would predict that R&D intensity and productivity should have increased among patenting firms. Consistent with our model, however, these increases did not occur." Other evidence supporting this model includes a distinctive pattern of cross-licensing and a positive relationship between rates of innovation and firm entry. [ [http://www.researchoninnovation.org/patent.pdf Sequential Innovation, Patents, and Imitation] , by James Bessen and Eric Maskin, Discussion paper, MIT (2000), forthcoming in "The RAND Journal of Economics"]

References

External links

* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2007/maskin-lecture.html Maskin Nobel Prize lecture]
* [http://www.sss.ias.edu/community/maskin.php Webpage from "Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science"]
* [http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/10/16/news/19009.shtml Profile in The Daily Princetonian]
* [http://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/restud/v66y1999i1p23-38.html Nash Equilibrium and Welfare Optimality]
* [http://ideas.repec.org/f/pma498.html IDEAS/RePEc]
*cite web | last=Tabarrok | first=Alex | title=What is Mechanism Design? Explaining the research that won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics. | work=Reason Magazine | date=2007-10-16 | url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/122998.html | accessdate=2007-12-11