Oliver Hart (economist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Oliver Hart
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Oliver Hart at Nobel press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, December 2016
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Oliver Simon D'Arcy Hart
October 9, 1948 London, England
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| Nationality | British, American |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge (BA) University of Warwick (MA) Princeton University (PhD) |
| Spouse(s) | Rita B. Goldberg |
| Children | 3 |
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| Awards | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2016) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Law and economics Corporate Finance |
| Institutions | Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology London School of Economics |
| Thesis | Essays in the Economics of Uncertainty (1974) |
| Doctoral advisor | Emma Rothschild |
| Doctoral students | David S. Scharfstein Jeremy C. Stein Luigi Zingales Richard Holden |
Sir Oliver Simon D'Arcy Hart was born on October 9, 1948. He is a British-born American economist. He currently works as a professor at Harvard University. In 2016, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He shared this award with another economist, Bengt R. Holmström.
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About Oliver Hart
Oliver Hart was born in Britain. His father, Philip D'Arcy Hart, was a medical researcher. His mother, Ruth Meyer, was a gynecologist.
His Education Journey
Oliver Hart studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge. He earned his first degree there in 1969. Later, he studied economics at the University of Warwick. He received his master's degree in 1972. He then went to Princeton University for his Ph.D. in economics, which he finished in 1974. His Ph.D. paper was about economics and uncertainty.
Where He Has Taught
After his studies, Oliver Hart taught at several universities. He was a lecturer at the University of Essex. He also worked at Churchill College, Cambridge. Later, he became a professor at the London School of Economics. In 1984, he moved to the United States. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since 1993, he has been a professor at Harvard University. He was even the head of Harvard's economics department from 2000 to 2003.
Awards and Recognition
Oliver Hart is a member of many important groups. These include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also part of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2016, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics. This was for his important work on contract theory. In 2023, he was made a Knight by the British King. This honor was for his contributions to economic theory.
What Oliver Hart Studies
Oliver Hart is an expert in several areas of economics. These include contract theory, the theory of the firm, and corporate finance. He also studies law and economics.
Understanding Contracts and Companies
His main research looks at how companies are owned and managed. He studies how different types of agreements, called contracts, affect businesses. He has shown that contracts are often "incomplete." This means they cannot cover every possible future situation. His ideas help us understand how companies are structured. They also explain how they make decisions.
His Work in Legal Cases
Oliver Hart's research has been used in real-world legal cases. He acted as an expert for the government in two cases. These cases involved companies trying to get tax benefits. The companies had sold parts of their business. However, they still kept control of the assets they sold. Hart's research helped the government argue that the companies should not get the tax benefits. This was because they still controlled the assets.
His Personal Life
Oliver Hart is a citizen of both Britain and the United States. He is married to Rita B. Goldberg. She is a literature professor at Harvard. She also wrote a book about growing up with the Holocaust. They have two sons and two grandsons.
Books He Has Written
- Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure (Oxford University Press, 1995).
Important Articles He Has Written
- "On the Optimality of Equilibrium when the Market Structure is Incomplete", Journal of Economic Theory, December 1975.
- "Takeover Bids, the Free-rider problem, and the Theory of the Corporation" (with Sanford J. Grossman), Bell Journal of Economics, Spring 1980.
- "An Analysis of the principal–agent problem" (with Sanford J. Grossman), Econometrica (January 1983).
- "The Market Mechanism as an Incentive Scheme", Bell Journal of Economics, 14 (Autumn 1983).
- "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration" (with Sanford J. Grossman), Journal of Political Economy, August 1986.
- "One Share-One Vote and the Market for Corporate Control" (with Sanford J. Grossman), Journal of Financial Economics, 1988.
- "Incomplete Contracts and Renegotiation" (with John Hardman Moore), Econometrica 56(4) (July 1988).
- "Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm" (with John Hardman Moore), Journal of Political Economy 98(6) (1990).
- " A Theory of Debt Based on the Inalienability of Human Capital" (with John Hardman Moore), Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1994.
- "The Proper Scope of Government: Theory and an Application to Prisons" (with Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny), Quarterly Journal of Economics 112(4) (1997).
- "Contracts as Reference Points" (with John Hardman Moore), Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2008.
See also
In Spanish: Oliver Hart para niños
- List of Jewish Nobel laureates
