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From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report in Special English. This year, the Nobel Prize for economics recognizes two Americans for their work. Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, made the announcement Monday. “The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2012 to Professor Alvin Roth at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA…And to Professor Lloyd S. Shapley at University of California Los Angeles.” Staffan Normark added the reason the two men won the prize. “For the theory of stable allocation and the practice of market design.” The Nobel Prize in economics is often awarded for discoveries in how markets work or how market actors behave. But Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley thought of ways to design markets. Per Krusell of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained it this way. “This year’s prize in economic sciences is about economic engineering. It’s about how to practically design certain markets so that they work well.” Lloyd Shapley worked with David Gale on a research project in the 1960s. It dealt with how to match up ten men and ten women in strong, successful marriages. The two researchers developed an algorithm or mathematical formula. It provided a model suggesting a way that all those couples could be matched best. | 
