Nobel Economics Prize 2026: How can Hall and Woodford’s ideas help tackle today’s economic challenges? | In Focus Podcast

This year’s Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to an American duo – Prof Robert Hall of Stanford University and Prof Michael Woodford of Columbia University – “for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation”.Both Prof Hall and Prof Woodford were part of a new crop of economists who studied the economy not as a monolith, but also as a collection of many of microeconomic decisions.Simply put, their work helped change how economists understand the economy: not just through a broad set of indicators such as inflation, output and consumption, but by examining how businesses and consumers make decisions, and how these decisions affect the economy as a whole.Their studies look at how the future plays a part in today’s economy. To help us understand what they studied and how it can be applied today, I have with me Dr. Partha Chatterjee, Dean of Academics & Professor of Economics, Shiv Nadar University.Host: Nivedita VaradarajanProducer: Shiksha JuralListen to more In Focus podcasts: Published - October 21, 2026 06:18 pm IST