‘Mechanism design’ in this year’s Nobel

Indra Nath

Irritated about the Rs 75,000 that he had lost in the stock market, Krishnan sat in a corner. “I am never…I mean NEVER going to that wretched place again…I have had enough of it,” he said to his wife Savithri who looked worried.
Both sighed as Krishnan slowly folded his socks into the shoes, anguish written all over his wrinkled face. As their daughter Priya came back after economics tuition, the couple quickly changed their mood and began humming a new Hindi song.
“Dad have you been trading again?” Priya asked.
“Yes”, he admitted for a change and confessed that he had just lost the money earned as performance bonus last year.
“Papa why do you trade…it isn’t an efficient system. Yet, even the Nobel committee seems to honour the idea,” Priya wondered.

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