Robert Butler "Bob" Wilson, Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American economist who is the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at Stanford University.
[8][9] His research on nonlinear pricing has influenced policies for large firms, particularly in the energy industry, especially electricity.
[14] Wilson is known for research and teaching on market design, pricing, negotiation, and related topics concerning industrial organization and information economics.
[8][15] Wilson's 1968 Econometrica paper The Theory of the Syndicates[16] influenced a whole generation of economics, finance, and accounting students.
The paper poses a fundamental question: Under what conditions does the expected utility representation describe the behavior of a group of individuals who choose lotteries and share risk in a Pareto-optimal way?
[19] It is an encyclopedic analysis of tariff design and related topics for public utilities, including power, communications, and transport.
"[20] Other contributions to game theory includes wage bargaining and strikes, and in legal contexts, settlement negotiations.
[21] The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Wilson and Paul Milgrom as the co-recipients of the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for having "improved auction theory and invented new auction formats, beneftting sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world".