Harry M. Markowitz

Facts

Harry M. Markowitz

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Harry M. Markowitz
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1990

Born: 24 August 1927, Chicago, IL, USA

Died: 22 June 2023, San Diego, CA, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

Prize motivation: “for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics”

Prize share: 1/3

Life

Harry Markowitz was born in Chicago, USA. He studied at the University of Chicago, completing his M.A. in 1950. While still a student, he became a member of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics. In 1954, he received his Ph.D. for his work on portfolio selection, a novel field in economics.

Work

The contribution for which Harry Markowitz received the Economic Sciences Prize was first published in the essay Portfolio Selection (1952), and later in his book Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification (1959). The theory of portfolio selection was originally normative for investment managers, i.e., a theory for optimal investment of wealth in assets which differ in regard to their expected return and risk. His theory evolved into a foundation for further research in financial economics.

To cite this section
MLA style: Harry M. Markowitz – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Thu. 12 Dec 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1990/markowitz/facts/>

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