The work of the two researchers, Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C.
Schelling, was essential in developing non-cooperative game theory
further and bringing it to bear on major questions in the social
sciences. Approaching the subject from different angles - Aumann from
mathematics and Schelling from economics - they both perceived that
the game-theoretic perspective had the potential to reshape the
analysis of human interaction. Schelling showed that many familiar
social interactions could be viewed as non-cooperative games that
involve both common and conflicting interests, and Aumann
demonstrated that long-run social interaction could be
comprehensively analyzed using formal non-cooperative game theory.
Over the last 25 years, game theory has become a universally accepted
tool and language in economics and in many areas of the other social
sciences. Current economic analysis of conflict and cooperation,
builds almost uniformly on the foundations laid by Aumann and
Schelling. The theory of repeated games is now the common framework
for analysis of long-run cooperation in the social sciences.
Applications range from the competing firms, which collude to
maintain a high price level, farmers who share pastures or irrigation
systems, to countries, which enter into environmental agreements or
are involved in territorial disputes.
Robert Aumann has played an essential role in shaping game theory. He
has promoted a unified view of the very wide domain of strategic
interactions, encompassing many apparently disparate disciplines,
such as economics, political science, biology, philosophy, computer
science and statistics. Instead of using different constructs to deal
with various specific issues - such as deterrence, perfect
competition, oligopoly, taxation and voting - Aumann has developed
general methodologies and investigated where these lead in each
specific application. His research is characterized by an unusual
combination of breadth and depth. Some contributions contain involved
analysis while others are technically simple but conceptually
profound. His fundamental works have both clarified the internal
logic of game-theoretic reasoning and expanded game theory's domain
of applicability. Among Aumann's many contributions, the study of
long-term cooperation has arguably had the most profound impact on
the social sciences.
Robert (Yisrael) Aumann was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1930 and
received his PhD in mathematics (1955) from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). He has taught mathematics at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1956, where he lives.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Bank
of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2005,
jointly to Robert J. Aumann of the Center for Rationality, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, and to Thomas C. Schelling of the Department
of Economics and School of Public Policy, University of Maryland,
College Park, MD, "for having enhanced our understanding of conflict
and cooperation through game-theory analysis." The prize will be
awarded in December 2005.