Robert Hall and Michael Woodford win 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics

American professors Robert E. Hall of Stanford and Michael Woodford of Columbia won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics for their work on the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation.

The Nobel committee said their models help central banks and governments smooth economic peaks and troughs during downturns and crises, and have been applied globally.

The prize rounds out a Nobel season that has put stabilisation — of economies, molecules and democracies — at the centre of the conversation.

Both laureates are giants of modern macroeconomics, whose work has shaped how central banks think about inflation and financial shocks.