NOBEL SEASON is over: Harvard’s Oliver Hart and MIT’s Bengt Holmström won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2016, as the Nobel prize in economics is formally known. Hart and Holmström were awarded the prize for teaching us how to form and design contracts. Together, they have developed “contract theory, a comprehensive framework for analysing many diverse issues in contractual design, like performance-based pay for top executives, deductibles and co-pays in insurance, and the privatisation of public-sector activities.” The popular background reading behind the award is available here.