Leonid Hurwicz, who became the oldest Nobel laureate after receiving the economics prize last year, has died aged 90, his university confirmed Wednesday.
Hurwicz, who was awarded the prestigious prize for 2007 along with fellow US economists Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson, died on Tuesday, according to the University of Minnesota. It gave no further details.
When he received the Nobel prize last October, Hurwicz, a Polish Jew who fled persecution in Russia and then his homeland before moving to the United States, told reporters he did not expect the honour.
"There were times when other people said I was on the short list but as time passed and nothing happened I didn't expect the recognition would come because people who were familiar with my work were slowly dying off," he said.
The Nobel jury awarded the trio with the 2007 prize in light of their work on Mechanism Design theory, a sub-field of economics, which aims to ensure the most efficient use of resources in search of desired ends.
The theory, initiated by Hurwicz and further developed by Maskin and Myerson "has helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes and voting procedures," the jury said.
The theory, for example, can help identify which mechanisms will realise the largest gains from trade, maximise a seller's expected gain or provide an insurance scheme which provides the best coverage without inviting misuse.
In a statement, Robert Bruininks, president of the University of Minnesota where Hurwicz was a Regents Professor Emeritus, described the late economist as an "extraordinary man".
"Not only were his economic theories groundbreaking, but he was a renaissance scholar, with a keen interest in many disciplines, an incisive mind and quick wit and a natural grace that endeared him to so many people," he said.
Hurwicz was born in Moscow in 1917, but his family fled Russia for their native Poland two years later fearing political persecution. It was in Poland that Hurwicz obtained a law degree, graduating from the University of Warsaw in 1938, before heading to the London School of Economics where he was taught by renowned Hungarian economist Nicholas Kaldor.
In 1939 he pursued his studies in Geneva but his family was again forced out of their home when Hitler invaded Poland. Hurwicz spent time in Switzerland and Poland before emigrating to the United States. His parents and brother were interned in Soviet labour camps but eventually joined him.