} Robert Butler Wilson, Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American economist and the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He was jointly awarded the

2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded jointly to the American economists Paul Milgrom (b. 1948) and Robert B. Wilson (b. 1937) "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats." According to the N ...

, together with his Stanford colleague and former student

Paul R. Milgrom Paul Robert Milgrom (born April 20, 1948) is an American economist. He is the Shirley and Leonard Ely Professor of Humanities and Sciences at the Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences, a position he has held since 1987. He is a ...

, "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats". Two more of his students,

Alvin E. Roth Alvin Eliot Roth (born December 18, 1951) is an American academic. He is the Craig and Susan McCaw professor of economics at Stanford University and the George Gund (philanthropist), Gund professor of economics and business administration emeritu ...

and Bengt Holmström, are also Nobel Laureates in their own right. Wilson is known for his contributions to management science and business economics. His doctoral thesis introduced sequential quadratic programming, which became a leading iterative method for nonlinear programming. With other

mathematical economist Mathematical economics is the application of mathematical methods to represent theories and analyze problems in economics. Often, these applied methods are beyond simple geometry, and may include differential and integral calculus, difference an ...

s at Stanford, he helped to reformulate the economics of industrial organization and

organization theory Organizational theory refers to the set of interrelated concepts that involve the sociological study of the structures and operations of formal social organizations. Organizational theory also attempts to explain how interrelated units of organiz ...

using non-cooperative game theory. His research on

nonlinear pricing Nonlinear pricing is a broad term that covers any kind of price structure in which there is a nonlinear relationship between price and the quantity of goods. An example is affine pricing. A nonlinear price schedule is a menu of different-sized bu ...

has influenced policies for large firms, particularly in the

energy industry The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy indu ...

, especially electricity.

Early life and academic career

Wilson was born on May 16, 1937, in Geneva, Nebraska. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Nebraska and earned a full scholarship to Harvard University. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1959. He then completed his M.B.A. in 1961 and his D.B.A. in 1963 from the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. He worked at the University of California, Los Angeles for a very brief time and then joined the faculty at

. He has been on the faculty of the Stanford Business School since 1964. He was also an affiliated faculty member of

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

from 1993 to 2001.

Research

Wilson is known for research and teaching on market design, pricing, negotiation, and related topics concerning industrial organization and information economics. He is an expert on game theory and its applications. He has been a major contributor to auction designs and competitive bidding strategies in the oil, communication, and power industries, and to the design of innovative pricing schemes. His work on pricing of priority service for electric power has been implemented in the utility industry. Wilson's 1968 '' Econometrica'' paper ''The Theory of the Syndicates'' influenced a whole generation of economics, finance, and accounting students. The paper poses a fundamental question: Under what conditions does the expected utility representation describe the behavior of a group of individuals who choose lotteries and share risk in a Pareto-optimal way? He has published about a hundred articles in professional journals and books since completing his education. He has been an associate editor of several journals, and delivered several public lectures. In 1993, Wilson published a book on Nonlinear Pricing. It is an encyclopedic analysis of tariff design and related topics for public utilities, including power, communications, and transport. The book won the 1995 Leo Melamed Prize, a prize awarded biannually by the University of Chicago for "outstanding scholarship by a business professor." Other contributions to game theory includes wage bargaining and strikes, and in legal contexts, settlement negotiations. He has authored some of the basic studies of reputational effects in predatory pricing, price wars, and other competitive battles.

Honors

Since Wilson completed the Bachelor, Master's, and Doctoral Degrees at Harvard College and the Harvard Business School, he has published about 100 articles in professional journals and books, for which he has received many honors.

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Wilson and Paul Milgrom as the co-recipients of the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for having "improved auction theory and invented new auction formats, beneftting sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world".

Alvin Roth Alvin Eliot Roth (born December 18, 1951) is an American academic. He is the Craig and Susan McCaw professor of economics at Stanford University and the Gund professor of economics and business administration emeritus at Harvard University.

(an economist who was a co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize and who had Wilson as his doctoral advisor) said that Wilson and Milgrom "haven't just profoundly changed the way we understand auctionsthey have changed how things are auctioned." Specifically, the Academy acknowledged Wilson's efforts in analyzing common value auctions, where bidders derive a common value from the underlying resource, and his theoretical proofs that bidders tend to bid lower than their best estimates of common value, in order to avoid the winner's curse. Some examples of common value auctions include radio frequency spectrum, and minerals.

Memberships and awards

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a designated 'distinguished fellow' of the American Economic Association, and a fellow, former officer and Council member of the Econometric Society. He was conferred an honorary Doctor of Economics degree in 1986 by the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. In 1995, he was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Chicago. In 2014, Wilson won a Golden Goose Award for his work involving auction design. He has won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015) in the Economics, Finance and Management category for his "pioneering contributions to the analysis of strategic interactions when economic agents have limited and different information about their environment". With colleagues

David M. Kreps David Marc "Dave" Kreps (born 1950 in New York City) is a game theory, game theorist and economist and professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Graduate School of Business at Stanford University (since 1980). The Stanford Universit ...

and Paul Milgrom, he was awarded the 2018

John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science The John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for noteworthy and distinguished accomplishments in any field of science within the charter of the Academy". Established by the America ...

References

External links

Personal web page
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Robert B. 1937 births American operations researchers Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association Economists from Nebraska Fellows of the Econometric Society Game theorists Harvard Business School alumni Harvard College alumni Living people Mathematical economists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Geneva, Nebraska Presidents of the Econometric Society Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty Nobel laureates in Economics Nancy L. Schwartz Memorial Lecture speakers