..out of the dark

Princeton professor Eric Maskin shares this year’s Nobel Prize in economics with two colleagues; the trio are pioneers in the field of mechanism design theory, which is dedicated to finding ways to make markets work more efficiently and fairly. (...)

Professor Eric Maskin, one of three American economists to receive the award, said that he “to some extent” takes issue with free-market orthodoxy championed by U.S President George W. Bush and some other western leaders.

“The market doesn’t work very well when it comes to public goods,” said Maskin, a slight, soft-spoken 57-year-old who lives in a house once occupied by Albert Einstein.

[snip]

“If I buy a car, I use the car, you don’t and the market for cars works pretty well. But there are many other sorts of goods, often very important goods, which are not provided well through the market. Often, these go under the heading of public goods,” he said.