Stockholm, Oct 12 (AFP/APP):US economists Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for work on commercial auctions, including for goods and services difficult to sell in traditional ways such as radio frequencies, the Nobel Committee said. The duo was honoured “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats,” the jury said. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that the discoveries by Milgrom, 72, and Wilson, 83, “have benefitted sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world,” it said in a statement. “Auctions affect all of us at every level. Moreover, they are becoming increasingly common and increasingly complicated,” the academy said, listing examples such as flexible electricity prices set by daily auctions and countries raising funds through government bond auctions. Wilson, a professor at Stanford in the US, was spotlighted for developing a theory on auctions focusing on a common value, such as the future value of radio frequencies, or the rights to extract minerals in a particular area. This common value “is uncertain beforehand but, in the end, is the same for everyone,” according to the academy. Wilson’s work, which resulted in three influential papers in the 1960s and 1970s, showed … Continue reading American duo wins Nobel Economics Prize for work on auctions