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Bengt Holmström | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Holmström in 2016 | |
| Born | Bengt Robert Holmström (1949-04-18)18 April 1949 (age 76) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | University of Helsinki (BS) Stanford University (MS,PhD) |
| Thesis | On incentives and control in organizations (1978) |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert B. Wilson |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral students | Jonathan Levin[1] |
| Awards | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2016) |
Bengt Robert Holmström (born 18 April 1949) is a Finnisheconomist who is currently Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Together withOliver Hart, he received the Central Bank of SwedenNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016.[2]
Holmström was born inHelsinki, Finland, on 18 April 1949, and belongs to theSwedish speaking minority of Finland.[3] He received hisB.S. in mathematics and science from theUniversity of Helsinki in 1972.[4] He also received aMaster of Science degree inoperations research fromStanford University in 1975.
He received hisPh.D. from theGraduate School of Business at Stanford in 1978.[3] He moved to the United States in 1976.[5]
He worked as a corporate planner from 1972 until 1974, then was an assistant professor at theHanken School of Economics from 1978 until 1979.[4] He served as an associate professor at theKellogg Graduate School of Management atNorthwestern University (1979–1983)[4] and as the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Management atYale University’s School of Management (1983–1994). Holmström was elected Alumnus of The Year by the University of Helsinki Alumni Association in 2010.
He has been on the faculty of M.I.T. since 1994, when he was appointed professor of economics and management at the department of economics and Sloan School of Management.[4]
Holmström is particularly well known for his work onprincipal-agent theory. His work made seminal advances in understanding contracting in the presence of uncertainty.[6] More generally, he has worked on the theory of contracting and incentives especially as applied to thetheory of the firm, to corporate governance and to liquidity problems in financial crises.[7] He praised the taxpayer-backedbailouts by the US government during the2008 financial crisis and emphasizes the benefits of opacity in themoney market.[8]
Holmström was elected member of theFinnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 1992 and an honorary member of the same society in 2016. He is a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, theEconometric Society, theEuropean Economic Association[9] and theAmerican Finance Association, and a foreign member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences and theFinnish Academy of Science and Letters. In 2011, he served as President of the Econometric Society. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from theStockholm School of Economics, Sweden, theUniversity of Vaasa and theHanken School of Economics in Finland.
Holmström was a member ofNokia'sboard of directors from 1999 until 2012.[10][11] He was a member of the Board of theAalto University from 2008 until 2017.[12][5]
He was awarded the 2012 Banque de France-TSE Senior Prize in Monetary Economics and Finance, the 2013 Stephen A. Ross Prize in Financial Economics and the 2013 Chicago Mercantile Exchange – MSRI Prize for Innovative Quantitative Applications.
In 2016, Holmström won theSveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel together withOliver Hart "for their contributions tocontract theory".[13]
He is married to Anneli Holmström[14] and they have one son.[3]
including the Prize Lecture 8 December 2016Pay for Performance and Beyond| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 2016 Served alongside:Oliver Hart | Succeeded by |
