Solari Lecture 2019 by Prof. Bengt Holmström (MIT, Nobel Prize in Economics 2016)

The 2019 Solari Lecture will welcome Prof. Bengt Robert Holmström, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Prof. Bengt Holmström will discuss “New forms of organization viewed through the lens of contract theory”, the research topic for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2016.

Over his career, Prof. Holmström has made significant contributions to contract theory, building the foundations of this field of study. Contract theory studies the design of formal and informal agreements that motivate people with conflicting interests to take mutually beneficial actions. It is about giving each party the right incentives or motivations to work effectively together. Prof. Holmström is particularly renowned for his research on applying the theory of contracts to the firm and corporate governance.

Each year, the Solari Lecture welcomes prestigious guests specialized in economics and econometrics, in memory of Luigi Solari, professor at the University of Geneva and pioneer in introducing research in econometrics in Switzerland. The first edition took place in 1979.

Biography

Bengt Robert Holmström, Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is a microeconomic theorist, best known for his research 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 studied mathematics and physics at the University of Helsinki and operations research at Stanford University, where he received his PhD in 1978. Before joining MIT in 1994, he was the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Management at Yale University’s School of Management (1983-94) and associate professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University (1979-82).