Sanford Grossman

The work. With Stiglitz, the proof that prices cannot be perfectly informative, because then nobody would pay to gather information. With Hart, the theory of the firm as a bundle of residual control rights, and the free-rider problem in takeovers. The Grossman-Stiglitz paradox is on the first page of every market-microstructure syllabus.

The case for. Richard Tol's reconstruction model ranks him first of 161 candidates, on a field-rotation argument that the economics of information is due. Stiglitz won in 2001 and Hart in 2016; Grossman is the coauthor both prizes skipped.

The case against. He left academia for a hedge fund in the 1990s. The committee has never given the prize to a working money manager, and a 4.4 percent model probability is still a 95.6 percent chance of someone else.

The KmikeyM angle. Grossman-Stiglitz says a market only works if someone is paid to pay attention. KmikeyM shareholders are the attention, and the dividend is a say in the decisions.