2 Americans win economics Nobel
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two American scholars won the Nobel economics prize Monday for work on match-making — how to pair doctors with hospitals, students with schools, kidneys with transplant recipients and even men with women in marriage.
Lloyd Shapley of UCLA and Alvin Roth, a Harvard University professor currently visiting at Stanford University, found ways to make markets work when traditional economic tools fail.
Shapley, 89, came up with the formulas to match supply and demand in markets where prices don’t do the job; the 60-year-old Roth put Shapley’s math to work in the real world.
Unlike some recent Nobel prizes — such as the Peace Prize that went to the embattled European Union last week — this year’s economics award did not seem to send a political message.
“It’s all about down-to-earth, highly useful stuff,” said Robert Aumann, a professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University who won the 2005 economics Nobel. “We’re talking about the nitty-gritty of health care and education — which medical students are assigned to which hospitals. We’re talking about how to arrange donors of kidneys.”
Shapley made early theoretical inroads into the subject, using game theory to analyze different matching methods in the 1950s and ’60s.
In a groundbreaking 1962 paper, Shapley and the late David Gale looked at how to match 10 men and 10 women in perfectly stable marriages. They created a model in which no two people liked anyone else better than each other.
Retail sales get a lift in September
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans spent more money at retailers in September — a buying surge that reflected growing consumer confidence and the launch of the latest iPhone.
Retail sales jumped 1.1 percent last month, producing the best two months of sales in two years, according to figures released Monday by the Commerce Department.
“The consumer is back,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. “They are not spending money like it is going out of style, but they are spending at a more normal pace that is consistent with a moderately growing economy.”
The spike in spending could boost sluggish growth and help revitalize President Barack Obama’s campaign after a strong debate performance by challenger Mitt Romney.
The increase comes only 10 days after a report that unemployment fell to its lowest level since Obama took office. And it follows a survey last week by the University of Michigan that showed consumer confidence rose in early October to a five-year high.
Stocks climbed after the retail report. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 95 points to close up at 13,424. Broader indexes also rose.
Businesses appeared to be banking on a resurgent consumer.
A second Commerce Department report Monday showed companies increased their stockpiles in August by 0.6 percent after a slightly larger gain in July.
4th victim found in Florida garage
MIAMI (AP) — Authorities have found the body of a fourth victim in the rubble of a parking garage that partially collapsed last week at a Florida college.
Miami-Dade County police said Monday the man’s body is deep in the unstable rubble and may take several days to remove.
Investigators believe the body is 53-year-old electrician Robert Budhoo. They say positive identification can’t be done until the body is removed.
Three other workers were killed when part of the five-story garage collapsed at Miami Dade College’s west campus. No students were injured.
The garage was still under construction and not open. Authorities have not yet determined what caused the collapse.
The campus is closed and students are attending classes at temporary locations.
