Bengt Holmström

Bengt Robert Holmström (born 18 April 1949) is a Finnish economist who is currently Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Together with Oliver Hart, he received the Central Bank of Sweden Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016.

Early life and education Holmström was born in Helsinki, Finland, on 18 April 1949, and belongs to the Swedish speaking minority of Finland. He received his B.S. in mathematics and science from the University of Helsinki in 1972. He also received a Master of Science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1975.

He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford in 1978.

Career He worked as a corporate planner from 1972 until 1974, then was an assistant professor at the Hanken School of Economics from 1978 until 1979. More generally, he has worked on the theory of contracting and incentives especially as applied to the theory of the firm, to corporate governance and to liquidity problems in financial crises. He praised the taxpayer-backed bailouts by the US government during the 2008 financial crisis and emphasizes the benefits of opacity in the money market.

Holmström was elected member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 1992 and an honorary member of the same society in 2016. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, the European Economic Association and the American Finance Association, and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. In 2011, he served as President of the Econometric Society. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, the University of Vaasa and the Hanken School of Economics in Finland.

Holmström was a member of Nokia's board of directors from 1999 until 2012. He was a member of the Board of the Aalto University from 2008 until 2017.

Personal life He is married to Anneli Holmström and they have one son.

Publications

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