The Macroeconomics of William Vickrey

This article analyzes the work of the late Dr. William Vickrey, the McVickar Professor Emeritus of Columbia University and 1996 Nobel-laureate in Economics. In choosing Vickrey for the Nobel prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences notes Vickrey's fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives, which he applied to the areas of taxation, auction theory, and pricing. His work focused on the economics of asymmetric and private information. Critics of Vickrey's full-employment macroeconomic vision have noted that his Nobel was awarded not for such progressive views but for his earlier work in microeconomics. This article connects Vickrey's early theoretical work with his full-employment blueprint