Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service, the programme that attempts

to detangle the numbers in the news and in life. I'm Charlotte McDonald.

It was announced this week that Paul Milgram and Robert Wilson have won this year's Nobel

Memorial Prize in Economics. The two economists from Stanford University in the US won for their

contribution to auction theory. We're now going to talk to the author of the book, How to

Make the World, Add Up. Well, that would actually be our presenter Tim Halford. Tim, hi.

Hello Charlotte. How did you know that I spent my misspent youth studying auction theory?

And this is the one subject in the entire world that I actually think I know something about?

Well, I was going to say I can tell you're pretty excited about this. I'm so excited.

I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

Are you pleased for Wilson and Milgram?

And these two men know each other very well. Robert Wilson originally taught Paul Milgram,

he was his thesis supervisor. And there's this touching moment that the Nobel Prize

Committee couldn't get hold of Milgram when they wanted to announce the prize. It was the

middle of the night in California. And Wilson, who lives on the same street as his colleague

and former student, walked round to his house. And rang on his doorbell in the middle of the night.

And we've actually got the footage of what he said. Paul? It's Bob Wilson. You won the Nobel Prize.

And it's quite touching. He said, not we've won the Nobel Prize, but you've won the Nobel Prize,

which is I think delightful and says a lot about the man.

So tell us why should we be excited about this?

Auctions are very old. Auctions go back thousands of years. They seem very simple. They're just a way

of finding the best prize and the bidder who wants an object most in a situation where nobody is

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