The 2020 economics Nobel prize went to the American pair Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”. From the perspective of the Gulf countries’ science policy, there is a deeper lesson in the form of linkages between the private sector and universities, and it comes at an important time, when depressed oil prices are accentuating the need for Gulf economies to elevate their homegrown levels of innovation.
