The Nobel prize to the information economy pioneers

This is a very modest term: information asymmetry. But it’s worth a Nobel prize. And it has been rewarded to three American economists: George Akerlof, 61, a professor at Berkeley University; Michael Spence, 58, the former doyen of Harvard (Massachusetts) and Stanford (California); Joseph Stiglitz, 58, the former chief economist of the IMF (International Monetary Funds), a professor at the University of Columbia (New York), Yale, Princeton, Oxford and Stanford.

The principle of the information asymmetry is very intelligent: borrowers have a better knowledge of their solvency than lenders; company managers have a better knowledge of the profitability of the company than shareholders; insured people have a better knowledge of their accident risk than insurance companies. There could be thousands of examples. In most of the markets, the two participants, the buyer and the seller, have not the same quantity and solidity of information. This asymmetry has a considerable influence on their functioning. We can see this situation in financial and stock exchange markets.

“During the seventies, the 2001 winners have set the bases of a general theory about markets with an information asymmetry, which has paved the way for a large range of applications, from the analysis of traditional agricultural markets to modern financial markets, by setting up the hardcore of the information economy modern theory”, Le Monde explains in the article "Le prix Nobel d'économie attribué à trois précurseurs de l'économie de l'information".

Other dailies have focused on the personality of Joseph Stigliz, who disagreed with the IMF choices and who is considered as one of the Popes of the anti-globalization. Information economy, problem of globalization: this hundredth Nobel Prize is definitely part of the 21st century!