An MIT news report dated 12 October 2026 said Robert E. Hall PhD ’67 and Michael Woodford PhD ’83, both MIT doctoral graduates, had been awarded the 2026 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Hall is a professor at Stanford University and Woodford a professor at Columbia University.

The report said the Nobel citation recognised research contributing to “new macroeconomic models that have significantly improved our ability to implement effective stabilisation policy.” It cited Hall’s late-1970s work on economic expectations and household consumption, and Woodford’s 2003 book “Interest and Prices: Foundations of a Theory of Monetary Policy.” Their research helped update models for intervention in economic crises, the report said, and informed New Keynesian models used in stabilisation.

According to the report, Hall becomes the fifth former doctoral student principally advised by MIT economist Robert M. Solow to win the economics prize. It said there are now 17 MIT alumni who have won the Nobel Prize in economics.