US researchers Roth, Shapely get economics Nobel

The Nobel Prize for economics has been awarded to two Americans from well-known universities - Alvin Roth of Harvard University in Boston and Lloyd Shapley, professor emeritus at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two economists – who have never worked together – for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design''.

Apart from the award going to US-based researchers as is often the case, people from poorer countries in Africa and Asia (including India) might be flabbergasted about the research for which the duo were awarded perhaps the ultimate recognition of achievement.

In simpler terms, Roth and Shapely were recognised for theories relating to speed dating evenings and appropriate placement of teachers at the school level. Their research also helps explain the market processes at work when doctors are assigned to hospitals, students to schools and human organs for transplant to recipients.

Many if not most people around the globe might think the economists' work irrelevant to their condition.

Shapely, 89, began the studies that Harvard's Roth, 60 years old, furthered. Both are from universities that boast a number of Nobel laureates among their alumni, particularly in fields related to the humanities rather than science.