Interview transcript

[Evelyn Hurwicz] – Hello.

[Adam Smith] – Good morning, I’m sorry to call so early. This is Adam Smith from the Nobel Foundation’s website in Stockholm.

[EH] – Yes.

[AS] – Would it be possible to speak to Leonid Hurwicz please?

[EH] – Yes, just a moment.

[Leonid Hurwicz] – Hello.

[AS] – Good morning, Professor Hurwicz, this is Adam Smith …

[LH] – Hello?

[EH] – He’s hard of hearing.

[AS] – Oh, I am sorry, I’ll speak louder. Can you hear me now OK?

[EH] – Yes.

[AS] – Thank you. My name is Adam Smith, which I know is a strange name for …

[EH laughs]

[AS] – …and I am calling from the Nobel Foundation website in Stockholm.

[EH] – Yes.

[AS] – And we have a tradition of recording very brief interviews with new laureates as soon as the news is announced. So I’m ringing to congratulate Professor Hurwicz, and just to ask a couple of quick questions, if I may.

[EH] – All right.

[AS] – Thank you. So we understand that you are now the oldest ever Laureate.

[EH] – The oldest winner?

[AS] – The oldest ever winner, yes.

[EH] – Oh.

[AS] – In the entire history of the Prize.

[EH] – Leo …

[LH] – Yeah.

[EH] – …you are the oldest winner of the Prize, Nobel Prize in Economics.

[LH] – The oldest, ah-ha. OK, you better listen Evelyn.

[EH] – No, he wants your remark about it. Are you glad you lived that long?

[EH and LH laugh]

[AS] – And the mechanism design theory that you developed, Professor Hurwicz, has been used in so many applications now. Is there one particular application that you are most pleased about?

[LH] – Well, I’m particularly pleased about welfare economics applications.

[AS] – It has brought good to many, many people.

[EH] – Right.

[AS] – OK, it’s been delightful to speak to you. Thank you very much indeed.

[EH] – Thank you, we’re very pleased.

[AS] – And again, my congratulations.

[LH] – Yeah, I’m very pleased and I hope that others who deserve it also got it.

[AS] – Bye, bye.

[EH] – Bye, bye.

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