Americans Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford won the economics Nobel. They study how people and businesses use money. Their work helps governments and central banks deal with problems such as rising prices.
Hall studied people's spending. People spend more when they expect to earn more later. New information can change their hopes. This makes future spending very hard to predict. Woodford studied how businesses choose prices. They think about future borrowing costs when they decide.
Woodford's work supports clear messages from central banks about their plans. These banks set short-term borrowing costs. But Kevin Warsh, the new head of the US central bank, thinks they say too much. He wants his bank to say less about its plans.
