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Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann commented on the issue of the hostages at the Arutz Sheva - Israel National News Jerusalem Conference. “Consider the ultimatum game,” Professor Aumann began, referencing a known economics problem. “Two players will get ten thousand shekels if they can agree on how to divide it. One suggests splitting it evenly. The other The other insists on taking at least nine thousand shekels. The first player will realize that even though such a demand is irrational, he will still profit by agreeing, and so the rational first player will agree to the terms set by the...

After dashing to Stockholm's Concert Hall with 27 members of his immediate family from the hotel where they stayed over Shabbat, Hebrew University mathematics Prof. Robert J. (Yisrael) Aumann accepted the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics from King Karl XVI Gustaf, along with Thomas C. Schelling, a retired professor from the University of Maryland. The prize was awarded for their work done in the 1960s and 70's "that helped defense analysts use models to map out options available to an adversary and thus predict what the opponent might do in a confrontation," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. It...