William Vickrey

William Spencer Vickrey (21 June 1914 – 11 October 1996) was a Canadian-American professor of economics. In 1996, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Mirrlees, They won the award for their research into the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information. Vickrey is the only person born in British Columbia to win a Nobel prize..

The announcement of his Nobel Prize was made just three days before he died. Vickrey died during his journey to a conference of Georgist academics that he helped found. He had never missed one of these conferences in 20 years.Netzer, Dick (November 1996). "Remembering William Vickrey". Land Lines. 8 (6). Retrieved 2 September 2016. His Nobel award was accepted by C. Lowell Harriss. Harriss worked with Vickrey  at the Columbia University economics department. A Nobel Prize has only been awarded after the deaath of a person three other times.

 Early years 
Vickrey was born in Victoria, British Columbia. He attended high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Vickrey got his BS in Mathematics at Yale University in 1935. He got his MA in 1937. He also did Ph.D. in 1948 at Columbia University. He remained at Columbia for most of his career.

 Personal life 
Vickrey married Cecile Thompson in 1951. He was a Quaker. He is also a member of Scarsdale Friends Meeting.William Vickrey - Biographical He died in Harrison, New York in 1996 from heart failure.

 Selected works 
 "Counterspeculation, Auctions, and Competitive Sealed Tenders", Journal of Finance,  1961. The paper originated auction theory, a subfield of game theory.





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Category:1914 births
Category:1996 deaths
Category:American Protestants
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:People from Victoria, British Columbia
Category:Nobel Prize in Economics winners