Economic Sciences · Oct 12, 2026
Robert E. Hall
“for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation”
- Born
- Palo Alto, California, USA, 1943
- Age at award
- 83
- Affiliation at award
- Stanford University; Hoover Institution
Key work
“Stochastic implications of the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis,” Journal of Political Economy, 1978
Sources1nobelprize.org
Career
- SchoolPublic schools in Palo Alto and Los Angeles
- BAEconomics, UC Berkeley
- 1967PhD in economics, MIT, under Robert Solow. Thesis: Essays on the Theory of Wealth
- 1978Publishes the consumption paper at the heart of the prize, in the Journal of Political Economy
- Early careerAssistant professor at Berkeley, then professor at MIT
- 1978Joins Stanford and Hoover. Takes the chair of the NBER dating committee
- 1980Serves on President-elect Reagan's Task Force on Inflation Policy
- 2010President of the American Economic Association
Lesser-known facts
- Has advised the US Treasury, the Justice Department and the Federal Reserve Board.
- On his education: “The taxpayers of California gave me an excellent education in the public schools and at Berkeley… I hope they will regard this as a satisfactory return on their investment.”
- Describes himself as an applied economist.
Mentors and collaborators
- Doctoral advisor
- Robert Solow
- Students
- Pete Klenow, Valerie Ramey
- Wife and co-author
- Susan Woodward, economist
