George Akerlof was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001, jointly with A Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz, for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information.
The award came from Akerlof's work demonstrating how a market where sellers have more information than buyers about product quality can contract into an adverse selection of low-quality produces.
His pioneering contribution has shown how asymmetric information of borrowers and lenders may explain skyrocketing borrowing rates of local Third World markets. He has also dealt with the difficulties for the elderly to find individual medical insurance and with labour-market discrimination of minorities.
George Akerlof was Cassel Professor with respect to money and banking at LSE from 1978 to 1980.