Nationality American Role Mathematician Fields Mathematics, Economics Parents Harlow Shapley | Name Lloyd Shapley | |
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Born Lloyd Stowell Shapley
June 2, 1923 (age 101)
Cambridge, Massachusetts ( 1923-06-02 ) Institutions University of California, Los Angeles, 1981–present
(Emeritus 2000–present)
Rand Corporation, 1948–49, 1954–81
Princeton University, 1953–54
US Army, 1943–45 Alma mater Princeton University
Harvard University Known for Shapley value
Shapley–Shubik power index
stochastic games
Bondareva–Shapley theorem
Shapley–Folkman lemma & theorem
Gale–Shapley algorithm
potential game
core, kernel and nucleolus
market games
authority distribution
multi-person utility
non-atomic games Books Values of Non-Atomic Games Education Harvard University, Princeton University Grandparents Sarah Shapely, Willis Shapely Similar People Alvin E Roth, Albert W Tucker, Harlow Shapley, John von Neumann, Robert B Wilson | ||
Doctoral advisor Albert W. Tucker Residence United States of America | ||
Lloyd Stowell Shapley (; June 2, 1923 – March 12, 2016) was an American mathematician and Nobel Prize-winning economist. He contributed to the fields of mathematical economics and especially game theory.
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Since the work of von Neumann and Morgenstern in 1940s, Shapley has been regarded by many experts as the very personification of game theory. With Alvin E. Roth, Shapley won the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design."
Life and career
Lloyd Shapley was born on June 2, 1923, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the sons of Martha (Betz) and the distinguished astronomer Harlow Shapley, both from Missouri. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and was a student at Harvard when he was drafted in 1943. He served in the United States Army Air Corps in Chengdu, China and received the Bronze Star decoration for breaking the Soviet weather code.
After the war, Shapley returned to Harvard and graduated with an A.B. in mathematics in 1948. After working for one year at the RAND Corporation, he went to Princeton University where he received a Ph.D. in 1953. His thesis and post-doctoral work introduced the Shapley value and the core solution in game theory. Shapley defined game theory as "a mathematical study of conflict and cooperation." After graduating, he remained at Princeton for a short time before going back to the RAND corporation from 1954 to 1981. In 1950, while a graduate student, Shapley invented the board game So Long Sucker, along with Mel Hausner, John Forbes Nash, and Martin Shubik. Israeli economist Robert Aumann said Shapley was "the greatest game theorist of all time."
From 1981 until his death, Shapley was a professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), serving at the time of his death as a professor emeritus there, affiliated with departments of Mathematics and Economics. He died on March 12, 2016, in Tucson, Arizona, after suffering from a broken hip, at the age of 92.
Shapley was an expert Kriegspiel player, and an avid baseball fan.
Contribution
Along with the Shapley value, stochastic games, the Bondareva–Shapley theorem (which implies that convex games have non-empty cores), the Shapley–Shubik power index (for weighted or block voting power), the Gale–Shapley algorithm (for the stable marriage problem), the concept of a potential game (with Dov Monderer), the Aumann–Shapley pricing, the Harsanyi–Shapley solution, the Snow–Shapley theorem for matrix games, and the Shapley–Folkman lemma & theorem bear his name. According to The Economist, Shapley "may have thought of himself as a mathematician, but he cannot avoid being remembered for his huge contributions to economics". The American Economic Association noted that Shapley was "one of the giants of game theory and economic theory".
Besides, his early work with R. N. Snow and Samuel Karlin on matrix games was so complete that little has been added since. He has been instrumental in the development of utility theory, and it was he who laid much of the groundwork for the solution of the problem of the existence of Von Neumann–Morgenstern stable sets. His work with M. Maschler and B. Peleg on the kernel and the nucleolus, and his work with Robert Aumann on non-atomic games and on long-term competition have all appeared in economic theory.
Shapley argued with his sons about whether he should accept the Nobel Prize at all. He opined that his father, the astronomer Harlow Shapley, deserved it more. His sons persuaded him to accept it and accompanied him to Stockholm.