Leonid Hurwicz

Regents' Professor of Economics, Emeritus University of Minnesota Research centers on the design and comparative analysis of decentralized economic mechanisms and institutions, especially their informational and performance (e.g. efficiency) properties. The formalization of basic concepts (mechanism, decentralization) has led to results relating minimal informational requirements to performance desiderata and the economy's characteristics. Areas of application include public goods (free rider problems) and issues in environmental economics, especially methods (market vs. non-market) of dealing with pollution or other externalities.