Dale T. Mortensen

Facts

Dale T. Mortensen

© The Nobel Foundation. Photo: U. Montan

Dale T. Mortensen
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2010

Born: 2 February 1939, Enterprise, OR, USA

Died: 9 January 2014, Wilmette, IL, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA; Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Prize motivation: “for their analysis of markets with search frictions”

Prize share: 1/3

Life

Dale Mortensen was born in Enterprise, Oregon to a family with Scandinavian heritage. His father was a forest ranger. Mortensen first studied at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, before completing his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1967. He has worked at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, since 1965. He is also a visiting professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. Dale Mortensen is married to musician, composer, and PhD in Religious Studies, Beverly Mortensen. They have three children.

Work

When employers look for workers and job seekers look for work, they do not immediately find each other. The search process requires time and resources, and friction in the market result in less efficient outcomes. Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides have developed theories for these types of markets and have applied them to the labor market. Their models help us understand how regulation and economic policies affect unemployment, job vacancies, and wages. These theories have also been applied in other areas, such as housing markets.

To cite this section
MLA style: Dale T. Mortensen – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Thu. 12 Dec 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2010/mortensen/facts/>

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