FACTBOX-Who are the winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics?

(Reuters) - Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson won the 2007 Nobel for economics "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory", the prize committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

Mechanism design theory, initiated by Hurwicz and further developed by Maskin and Myerson, has helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes and voting procedures. Mechanism design theory plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science.

The economics prize is not part of the original crop of Nobel Prizes set out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will. It was established in 1968 and is officially called The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Here are some key details on Hurwicz, Maskin and Myerson.

* LEONID HURWICZ

-- Hurwicz, born in August 1917, received his LL.M. from Warsaw University, Poland in 1938.

-- He has taught in the areas of theory, welfare economics, public economics, mechanisms and institutions, and mathematical economics.

-- Hurwicz's current research includes comparison and analysis of systems and techniques of economic organization, welfare economics, game-theoretic implementation of social choice goals, and modelling economic institutions.

-- He is the oldest person to be awarded a Nobel Prize.