Columbia Prof Woodford Wins 2026 Nobel Economics Prize
NEW YORK — Columbia University professor Michael Woodford has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, sharing the prestigious honor with Stanford University's Robert E. Hall. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award on October 12, recognizing the two American economists for their work on the microeconomic foundations needed to create macroeconomic stability — research that has helped governments and central banks manage periods of economic boom and bust.
Their work helped shape how central banks set interest rates and communicate policy — a contribution that takes on particular relevance as those institutions continue to navigate energy-driven inflation and risks to economic growth.
Woodford, who holds the John Bates Clark professorship of political economy at Columbia, became the university's 16th affiliate to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics and its 89th Nobel laureate overall. Woodford has been an economics professor at Columbia since 2004.
A member of the Nobel economics prize committee, Timo Boppart, explained the significance of their contribution: "The solution by Robert Hall and Michael Woodford was to build a new framework ground up."
Columbia celebrated the announcement with a gathering of students, faculty, administrators, and alumni in the Low Library Rotunda on Monday afternoon. University President Jennifer Mnookin praised Woodford's accomplishment and highlighted Columbia's long legacy of Nobel Prize wins in economics.
Among Woodford's many prior accolades are the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics in 2007, the Banque de France/TSE Prize in Monetary Economics in 2018, and the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics in 2024.
Hall, born in California, is a professor at Stanford University, while Massachusetts-born Woodford is a professor at Columbia University. The two winners will split a prize totaling 12 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to approximately $1.2 million.
The award continues Columbia's proud tradition of producing economic thinkers of the highest order, cementing its place among the world's foremost institutions for the study of economics.