The Wire

Economics is often derided by some as being too focused on theoretical models that bears little resemblance to the behaviour it is trying to describe.

This year’s winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (not one of the original Nobel Prizes) Bengt Holmstrom from the MIT and Oliver Hart from Harvard University worked extensively in the field known as ‘contract theory’ – the study of deal-making and relationships.

This covers everything from relationships between employers and employees, executives and companies, governments and the private sector and even theoretically marriage.