Patrick Bolton

Patrick Bolton (born June 11, 1957, Dublin, Ireland) is the Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business at Columbia Business School (2005–present)

Bolton specializes in contract theory and its relationship to corporate finance and industrial organization, in particular the allocation of control and decision rights to contracting parties. and how public policy influences corporate behaviour and the actions of institutions.

Bolton has published a number of books, including Contract Theory (2004) with Mathias Dewatripont, Credit Markets for the Poor (2005) with Howard Rosenthal, The Economics of Contracts (2008), Sovereign Wealth Funds and Long-term Investing (2012) with Frederic Samama and Joseph E. Stiglitz and Coping with the Climate Crisis: Mitigation Policies and Global Coordination (2018), with Rabah Arezki, Karim El Aynaoui and Maurice Obstfeld.

Early life and education Bolton was born on June 11, 1957, in Dublin, Ireland and holds dual French and American nationality. Bolton has a BA in economics from the University of Cambridge and a BA in political science from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He earned his PhD from the London School of Economics in 1986. In 2018, he became a visiting professor of finance at Imperial College London.

Awards 2021, EAERE Award for ERC Grants Laureates in the field of environmental and resource economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) 2018, Louis Bachelier Fellow 2016, Fellow, American Finance Association 2013, Corresponding Fellow, British Academy 2009. Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1993, Fellow, Econometric Society