Lones Smith

Lones Smith is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, holding the Maude P. & Milton J. Shoemaker Distinguished Chair and the David Blackwell Professorship. He previously held faculty positions at MIT and the University of Michigan.

• Education: PhD in Economics (University of Chicago), Honours BA in Math and Economics (Carleton University)

Smith’s research focuses on microeconomic theory, particularly information economics, search theory, matching theory, and game theory. He explores how strategic incentives and information asymmetries shape economic interactions and has contributed to understanding sorting patterns in frictional markets.

His recent work includes the 2024 American Economic Review paper on comparative statics in pairwise matching, which provides tools to analyze sorting without solving optimization problems explicitly. Earlier studies include foundational contributions to assortative matching (Econometrica, 2000) and nonstationary search models (2001). His research has been supported by continuous NSF grants since the 1990s.

• Scientific Awards: Governor General’s Gold Medal (Carleton University, top undergraduate)

Smith has collaborated with notable economists such as Robert Shimer, Giuseppe Moscarini, and Jan Eeckhout. His methodological emphasis combines theoretical innovation with empirical relevance, as seen in his 2017 Journal of Economic Literature review. He actively engages in graduate pedagogy and maintains a focus on equilibrium feedback mechanisms.