New Delhi, Oct. 13 -- The 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to Robert Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University. Their research helps explain how decisions of households and firms collectively influence inflation, employment and economic fluctuations, and how policy can moderate them. The prize marks another chapter in a century-old debate on how economies function and whether governments can stop recessions.

Keynes revolutionized economics in 1936 by arguing that economies could remain trapped in prolonged unemployment, requiring government intervention to revive demand. His ideas dominated post-war policymaking.

But the oil shocks of the 1970s produced stagflation, the coexistence of high inf...