What ice cream has to do with this year's Nobel Prize in economics
The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to Robert Hall and Michael Woodford for their work on the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization. The prize committee used the concept of 'sticky prices'—illustrated by an ice cream menu—to explain how firms set prices for long periods, influencing inflation and recession policy.
Why it matters
This research is foundational to New Keynesian economics, which shapes how modern central banks and governments manage economic stability and inflation.
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Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences This article first appeared in the Planet Money newsletter. You can sign up here .
On Monday morning, the world's econ nerds tuned in to an announcement from Sweden to learn who won this year's Nobel Prize in economics. And we got a lesson involving … ice cream.
The winners were Robert Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University. The prize committee honored them "for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization."
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5 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
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