He was jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory".

[4] Maskin was born in New York City on December 12, 1950, into a Jewish family, and spent his youth in Alpine, New Jersey.

His research projects include comparing different electoral rules, examining the causes of inequality, and studying coalition formation.

[15] In September 2017, Maskin received the title of HEC Paris Honoris Causa Professor.

Software, semiconductor, and computer industries have been innovative despite historically weak patent protection, he argued.

A natural experiment occurred in the 1980s when patent protection was extended to software", wrote Maskin with co-author James Bessen.

Other evidence supporting this model includes a distinctive pattern of cross-licensing and a positive relationship between rates of innovation and firm entry.