Economics 2026 · Announced Oct 12
They tied the big economy to the small choices people make.
Shared by two people
In plain words
Hall showed that if people plan ahead, their spending only changes when they get news. Woodford built the model central banks use to decide where to set interest rates.
Why it matters
When a central bank raises or cuts rates to fight inflation or a slump, it is leaning on this kind of thinking.
The official reason
"for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation"
48
years from Hall's spending paper (1978) to the prize
The long road
- 1978Hall publishes his paper on how forward-looking people spend.
- 2003Woodford publishes Interest and Prices, a guide for central banks.
- 2026Prize in Economic Sciences.