Important personalitiesBack

Alvin Elliot Roth (born December 18, 1951) is the Craig and Susan McCaw professor of economics at Stanford University and the Gund professor of economics and business administration emeritus at Harvard University.

Roth has made significant contributions to the fields of game theory, market design and experimental economics, and is known for his emphasis on applying economic theory to solutions for "real-world" problems.

In 2012, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Lloyd Shapley "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design".


Biography

Al Roth, a Jewish American, graduated from Columbia University in 1971 with a degree in operations research. He then moved to Stanford University, receiving both his masters and PhD in operations research there in 1973 and 1974 respectively.

After leaving Stanford, Roth went on to teach at the University of Illinois which he left in 1982 to become the Andrew W. Mellon professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh. While at Pitt, he also served as a fellow in the university's Center for Philosophy of Science and as a professor in the Katz Graduate School of Business. In 1998, Roth left to join the faculty at Harvard where he remained until deciding to return to Stanford in 2012. In 2013 he became a full member of the Stanford faculty and took emeritus status at Harvard.

Roth is an Alfred P. Sloan fellow, a Guggenheim fellow, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Econometric Society. A collection of Roth's papers is housed at the Rubenstein Library at Duke University.