Robert C. Merton | |
---|---|
Born | Robert C. Merton July 31, 1944 New York City, New York, USA |
Nationality | American |
Fields | Finance, Economics |
Institutions |
Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Alma mater |
Columbia University California Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Doctoral advisor | Paul Samuelson |
Doctoral students | Jonathan E. Ingersoll |
Known for |
Black–Scholes model ICAPM Merton's portfolio problem Merton model Jarrow–Turnbull model Long-Term Capital Management |
Notable awards | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1997) |
Robert Cox Merton (born July 31, 1944) is an American economist, Nobel laureate in Economics, and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, known for his pioneering contributions to continuous-time finance, especially the first continuous-time option pricing model, the Black–Scholes formula.
Merton was born in New York City to a Jewish father sociologist Robert K. Merton and mother Suzanne Carhart who was from a "multigenerational southern New Jersey Methodist/Quaker family." He grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Mathematics from the School of Engineering and Applied Science of Columbia University, a Masters of Science from the California Institute of Technology, and his doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970 under the guidance of Paul Anthony Samuelson. He then joined the faculty of the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he taught until 1988. Subsequently, Merton moved to Harvard University, where he was George Fisher Baker Professor of Business Administration from 1988 to 1998 and has held the John and Natty McArthur University Professorship since 1998. On June 11, 2010 it was announced that Merton would retire from Harvard and rejoin the MIT Sloan School of Management. Merton also sits on the QFINANCE Strategic Advisory Board.