Myron Scholes
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Myron S. Scholes
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1997
Born: 1 July 1941, Timmins, ON, Canada
Affiliation at the time of the award: Long Term Capital Management, Greenwich, CT, USA
Prize motivation: "for a new method to determine the value of derivatives."
Contribution: Developed a method of determining the value of derivatives, the Black-Scholes formula (together with Fischer Black, who died two years before the Prize award). This methodology paved the way for economic valuations in many areas. It also generated new financial instruments and facilitated more effective risk management in society. The work generated new financial instruments and has facilitated more effective risk management in society.
Prize share: 1/2
Life
Myron Scholes was born in Ontario, Canada. His family's business background strongly influenced his interest in economics. As a teenager he lost his mother to cancer, and he had eye problems himself. It was hard for him to read. Instead he had to teach himself to think abstractly and be a good listener. He studied economics at the University of Chicago, where he received his doctorate. After a period at MIT, he returned to Chicago, and in 1981 he moved to Stanford. He has two daughters, Anne and Sara, and is married to Jan Scholes.
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