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Bengt Holmström
Economist

Bengt Holmström

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Explaining how contracts and incentives work under uncertainty.

Moral Hazard and Observability · Moral Hazard in Teams

Born
18 April 1949
Birthplace
Helsinki

More people

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Bengt Holmström

Bengt Holmström is a Finnish economist known for principal–agent theory and the economics of incentives. He shared the 2016 economics Nobel memorial prize with Oliver Hart.

Early life

Education

Studied mathematics in Helsinki before graduate work in operations research and business at Stanford.

Career

  1. 1978

    Doctorate

    Completed his PhD at Stanford.

  2. 1983

    Yale faculty

    Became a professor of management.

  3. 1994

    MIT faculty

    Joined MIT in economics and management.

Selected work

Moral Hazard and Observability

Examined how information should enter incentive contracts.

Moral Hazard in Teams

Analysed incentives when output depends on collective effort.

Beyond work

Institutional service

Served on Nokia’s board from 1999 to 2012 and on Aalto University’s board.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden. CC BY 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.