For the first time in the history of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), a Nobel Laureate will deliver a lecture. Professor Eric Stark Maskin, who had received the Nobel Prize for economics in 2007, will speak on "Introduction to Mechanism Design" on February 24 at the IIM-A.

According to IIM-A officials, the second IIM-A—SRK annual lecture will be delivered by Maskin at the Ravi J Mathai hall at the institute. Maskin (67), an American economist and Adams University Professor at Harvard, was awarded the Nobel with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson "for having laid the foundations of Mechanism Design theory."

Maskin has made contributions to game theory, contract theory, social choice theory, political economy, and other areas of economics. Maskin has co-taught courses with another Nobel Laureate in the field of economics, Amartya Sen, at Harvard.

Mechanism design is a game theory that takes an engineering approach to designing economic mechanisms or incentives, to achieve desired objectives and in strategic settings where players act rationally.