Thomas Sargent, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a leader in the field of macroeconomics, has been co-awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Stanford—Hoover economist Thomas Sargent, a leader in the field of macroeconomics and the rational expectations revolution, was named cowinner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences today.

Sargent, 68, has been a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution since 1987. He is a professor emeritus in Stanford’s economics department and a professor at New York University.

The Nobel committee named Sargent for his “empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted in announcing the award. Sargent shares the prize, including the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million), with Christopher Sims at Princeton.

“Thomas Sargent has shown how structural macroeconometrics can be used to analyze permanent changes in economic policy,” the Nobel announcement said. “This method can be applied to study macroeconomic relationships when households and firms adjust their expectations concurrently with economic developments.”

Sargent is a veteran of the United States Army and received his doctorate from Harvard University.