Franco Modigliani
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Franco Modigliani | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 18 1918 Rome Image:Flag of Italy.svg |
| Died | September 25 2003 (aged 85) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Residence | U.S. Image:Flag of the United States.svg |
| Field | Finance |
| Institutions | Carnegie Mellon UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Academic advisor | Jacob Marschak |
| Known for | Modigliani-Miller theorem |
| Notable prizes | Nobel Prize in Economics (1985) |
Franco Modigliani (June 18, 1918 – September 25, 2003) was an Italian-American economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT Department of Economics, and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1985.
Born in Italy, he left Italy for the US in 1939 because of his Jewish background and antifascist views. From 1942 to 1944 he taught at Columbia University and Bard College as an instructor in economics and statistics. In 1944 he obtained his D. Soc. Sci. from the New School for Social Research working under Jacob Marschak. In 1946, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States, and in 1948, he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty.
When he was a professor at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration of Carnegie Mellon University in the 1950s and early 1960s, Modigliani made two path-breaking contributions to economic science:
- Along with Merton Miller, he formulated the important Modigliani-Miller theorem in corporate finance. This demonstrated that under certain assumptions, the value of a firm is not affected by whether it is financed by equity (selling shares) or debt (borrowing money).
- He was also the originator of the life-cycle hypothesis, which attempts to explain the level of saving in the economy. Modigliani proposed that consumers would aim for a stable level of income throughout their lifetime, for example by saving during their working years and spending during their retirement.
In 1962, he joined the faculty at MIT, achieving distinction as an Institute Professor, where he stayed until his death.
Modigliani also co-authored the textbooks, "Foundations of Financial Markets and Institutions" and "Capital Markets: Institutions and Instruments" with Frank J. Fabozzi of Yale School of Management.
Active until the end, Modigliani enlisted fellow Nobel laureates Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow in 2003 to write a letter published in The New York Times chiding the Anti-Defamation League for honoring Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi had recently defended Mussolini's conduct toward Jews during World War II.
Modigliani was a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security
[edit] External links
- Franco Modigliani autobiography
- About Franco Modigliani from nobel-winners.com
- Memorial for Franco Modigliani - MIT Sloan
- his pioneering analyses of saving and of financial markets.
- School performance in the early years was good though not outstanding
[edit] See also
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: List of Laureates |
|---|
Milton Friedman (1976) • Bertil Ohlin / James Meade (1977) • Herbert Simon (1978) • Theodore Schultz / Arthur Lewis (1979) • Lawrence Klein (1980) • James Tobin (1981) • George Stigler (1982) • Gérard Debreu (1983) • Richard Stone (1984) • Franco Modigliani (1985) • James M. Buchanan (1986) • Robert Solow (1987) • Maurice Allais (1988) • Trygve Haavelmo (1989) • Harry Markowitz / Merton Miller / William Forsyth Sharpe (1990) • Ronald Coase (1991) • Gary Becker (1992) • Robert Fogel / Douglass North (1993) • John Harsanyi / John Forbes Nash / Reinhard Selten (1994) • Robert Lucas, Jr. (1995) • James Mirrlees / William Vickrey (1996) • Robert C. Merton / Myron Scholes (1997) • Amartya Sen (1998) • Robert Mundell (1999) • James Heckman / Daniel McFadden (2000) |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Modigliani, Franco |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Economist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 10, 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rome |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 25, 2003 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
ca:Franco Modigliani de:Franco Modigliani es:Franco Modigliani fr:Franco Modigliani hr:Franco Modigliani io:Franco Modigliani id:Franco Modigliani it:Franco Modigliani he:פרנקו מודיליאני nl:Franco Modigliani ja:フランコ・モディリアーニ oc:Franco Modigliani pl:Franco Modigliani pt:Franco Modigliani ro:Franco Modigliani rm:Franco Modigliani ru:Модильяни, Франко fi:Franco Modigliani sv:Franco Modigliani
Categories: Economists | American economists | American business theorists | Italian-Americans | Italian economists | Italian Jews | Jewish scientists | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Nobel laureates in Economics | Italian Nobel laureates | Refugees | Carnegie Mellon University faculty | The New School alumni | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty | 1918 births | 2003 deaths
