Oliver Hart · Philosophy & Social Sciences
Nobel laureate in economics (2016) for contract theory
9 October 1948, Grande-Bretagne
London, Cambridge (Massachusetts)
Oliver Hart is recognized among Jewish contributors to Philosophy & Social Sciences — Nobel laureate in economics (2016) for contract theory
Origins and early life
Sir Oliver Hart, born in Britain on 9 October 1948, is the son of two Jewish parents: the medical researcher Philip D'Arcy Hart, a member of the Montagu family — his great-grandfather was the banker Samuel Montagu, first Baron Swaythling — and the gynaecologist Ruth Meyer. He read mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, took a master's in economics at Warwick and a doctorate at Princeton in 1974, then taught at Essex, at Churchill College, Cambridge, and at the London School of Economics before Harvard, where he is a University Professor.
Work and career
His work built the theory of incomplete contracts: since no agreement can provide for every contingency, what matters is who owns the assets and holds the right to decide in the cases the contract does not cover. That frame shows how ownership should be allocated and when contracting is better than ownership.
Recognition
He shared the 2016 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Bengt Holmström for their contributions to contract theory, and was knighted in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to economic theory.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Nobel Prize winners in Economics
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Nobel laureate in economics (2016) for contract theory
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Nobel Prize winners in Economics
