Masahiko Aoki facts for kids

Masahiko Aoki (born April 1, 1938 – died July 15, 2015) was a famous Japanese economist. An economist is someone who studies how people and countries make choices about money, resources, and goods.

He was a professor at Stanford University and was known for his ideas on how different organizations work. He studied things like how companies are run, how they make decisions, and how economies in East Asia grew.

Early Life and School Days

Masahiko Aoki was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1938. He went to Tokyo University and earned his first degrees in economics in 1962 and 1964.

When he was a university student, Aoki was a leader in a student group called "The Bund." This group was very active in big protests in 1960 against a treaty between the U.S. and Japan. Aoki wrote many ideas for this group.

After these protests, Aoki changed his mind about his earlier views. He then moved to the United States to study more about economics. In 1967, he earned his Ph.D. (a very high degree) from the University of Minnesota. There, he learned from important economists like John Chipman and Leonid Hurwicz, who later won a Nobel Prize.

Working as a Professor

Aoki started his teaching career as an assistant professor at Stanford University in 1967. He also taught at Harvard University and Kyoto University in Japan.

He became a full professor at Kyoto University in 1977. Later, in 1984, he went back to Stanford University as an economics professor. He became a Professor Emeritus (a retired professor who keeps their title) at Kyoto University in 2001 and at Stanford University in 2004.

After retiring from Stanford, he focused more on research and international projects. He also held visiting positions at many other universities around the world, including the London School of Economics.

His Research Work

Masahiko Aoki's research was published in many top economics magazines. He wrote about important ideas in economics.

He also helped start and edit a magazine called Journal of the Japanese and International Economies. This magazine shared new ideas about economies in Japan and other countries.

Besides writing five of his own books, Aoki helped organize many international research projects. He edited more than ten books for groups like the World Bank. Over 200 experts from more than 20 countries worked on these books.

Aoki was also the president of the Japanese Economic Association from 1995 to 1996. He was also the president of the International Economic Association from 2008 to 2011. These are important roles in the world of economics.

He also led a research institute for the Japanese government called RIETI. There, he believed that different types of studies should work together to solve public policy problems.

Important Ideas in Economics

Aoki made big contributions to economics and other social sciences. He focused on understanding how different organizations and systems work. This is called "comparative institutional analysis." He also studied the "theory of the firm" and "corporate governance."

How Companies Work

In his 1984 book, The Cooperative Game Theory of the Firm, Aoki tried to bring together different ideas about how companies operate. He looked at how different groups within a company, like workers or owners, share power and make decisions.

He also studied how companies are organized inside. For example, some companies have a "hierarchical" structure, like a pyramid, with clear bosses. Others are more "horizontal" or "flat," where everyone has more say. He looked at how these structures work in different countries, like Japan, the US, and Germany.

Aoki even used his ideas to study big events like nuclear power accidents. He looked at how the way a company is organized might affect how it handles a crisis, like the Fukushima accident. His later work, Corporations in Evolving Diversity, brought all these ideas together.

His Passing

Masahiko Aoki passed away on July 15, 2015. He was 77 years old. A special meeting was held at Stanford University to remember his life and work. Many famous people, including Kenneth Arrow and Francis Fukuyama, spoke at this event.

Awards and Honors

• 1981 Fellow, Econometric Society (a group for top economists)
• 1990 Japan Academy Prize (a very high award in Japan)
• 1990 Hiromi Arisawa Memorial Award for the Best Book on Asia
• 1993 Foreign Member, Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences
• 1995–96 President, Japanese Economic Association
• 1996 Honorary Visiting Professor, People's University of China
• 1997 Distinguished Visiting Fellow, LSE
• 1998 Schumpeter Prize (for important work in economics)
• 1999 Walras-Pareto Lecture, University of Lausanne
• 2003 Honorary Guest Professor, Tsinghua University (Beijing)
• 2008 Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies, Oxford University
• 2008–2011 President, the International Economic Association