It’s not a question I’d really thought to ask, to be honest. But Evan Davis latest post to his ‘Evanomics’ weblog is fascinating for it’s interesting explanation about what the Nobel Prize for Economics was about this year. Or, at least, what we call the Nobel Prize for Economics, for it seems there’s actually no such thing.
Mechanism design theory sounds like a dry subject. But as I supped my morning coffee, it was interesting to read his summary, making the entire subject more relevant and understandable. An Uncle once asked “What did you learn today, that you didn’t know yesterday?”. Well, today I’ve a bit more of an understanding about what Mechanism design theory is. That’s something at least. I get a useful bit of trivia with regards the prize names too.
Could I explain mechanism design theory? Probably not very well, but that doesn’t mean I’ll not have a go at it: I understand it’s a body of theory that can better help us measure and understand what makes mechanisms more efficient than others, be it a market, an auction, or fairly dividing up a cake with your brother. If we can understand these problems - and this theory helps us to do that - we can then go on to build better systems. But don’t take my word for it, Evan Davis does a much better job!
I certainly hope that my little intrigued aside might encourage folk to put Evan Davis’ weblog into their news readers. Along with Nick Robinson’s newslog, and Mark Mardell’s Euroblog, they provide excellent additional material and content.
