Science & invention
Paul Milgrom
born 1948 · economist
Stanford economist who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize for auction theory and helped design the U.S. radio-spectrum auctions; born in Detroit and raised in Oak Park.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 78- Birth name
- Paul Robert Milgrom
- Detroit years
- 1948–1966
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Milgrom was born in Detroit in 1948, the second of four sons in a Jewish family, and grew up in suburban Oak Park, where he went to Dewey Elementary School and Oak Park High School. He studied mathematics at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1970, and worked for several years as an actuary before earning a doctorate at Stanford under Robert Wilson. With Wilson he designed the simultaneous multiple-round auction that the Federal Communications Commission first used in 1994 to sell spectrum licenses, a format since adopted around the world. He later led the team that designed the 2016–2017 incentive auction, which moved airwaves from television stations to wireless broadband. Milgrom and Wilson shared the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Highlights
- Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 2020, with Robert B. Wilson
- Co-designed the FCC spectrum auction format first used in 1994
- Led design of the 2016–2017 broadcast incentive auction
- Graduate of Oak Park High School and the University of Michigan (1970)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1960s
Oak Park High School
His suburban high school; he grew up in Oak Park after the family left Detroit.