Eric Maskin

“I entered economics because of a course I took on 'information economics,' which I found fascinating.”

“The theory of mechanism design can be thought of as the 'engineering' side of economic theory.”

“If budget planning requires gathering information from people who may not always have the incentive to disclose that information, then the principles of mechanism design can definitely be of use in such planning.”

“Many markets work best with little or no outside interference. But others - especially those subject to big 'externalities' - need a helping hand.”

“I probably learned most at MIT by teaching and working with Peter Diamond, who acted like a big brother to me during my time in the department.”

“I choose questions to work on according to how much they excite me.”

“In an industry with highly sequential innovation, it may be better for society to scrap patents altogether than try to tighten them.”

“What we mean by an outcome will naturally depend on the context. Thus, for a government charged with delivering public goods, an outcome will consist of the quantities provided of such goods as intercity highways, national defense and security, environmental protection, and public education together with the arrangements by which they are financed.”

“This may not be the most serious problem in the world, but it is a familiar one: How do you divide a piece of cake equally between two children and also make sure that each of them sees it as a fair division?”

“When a bank calls in a loan, it obviously hurts the customer in question. But it also adversely affects other banks that have lent to this borrower. They are now less likely to be repaid and so can't as readily lend to their own customers.”

“I have a strong attachment to Harvard.”

“Economic forecasting has actually got pretty good over the years, though admittedly, we don't always get it right.”

“A contingent bailout policy - implicit or explicit - must be coupled with some regulation of what banks can and cannot do. For example, a ban on lending to uncreditworthy customers might well make sense.”

“I like to work on a number of things simultaneously. If you're working on a variety of projects and if you get stuck on one of them, you can move to another without grinding your gears indefinitely.”

“A properly designed tax system can strike a balance between helping the poor and, at the same time, giving people the incentive to work.”

“Devising a mechanism is a lot like solving a puzzle - and gives you the same kind of kick.”

“The market doesn't work very well when it comes to public goods.”

“There is universal consensus among experts that the earth's atmosphere is heating up - and that we are responsible for it by putting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We also know that the consequences of global warming are catastrophic. But how do we make sure that all countries reduce greenhouse gases?”

“I don't want to make public statements about issues that I have not studied in detail.”

“Because mechanism designers do not generally know which outcomes are optimal in advance, they have to proceed more indirectly than simply prescribing outcomes by fiat; in particular, the mechanisms designed must generate the information needed as they are executed.”