The Fama of modern finance

When Eugene Fama enrolled at Chicago Booth School of Business in 1960, “finance was a joke”, he says in a candid and fascinating insight into his more than 50 years as a student, academic and teacher at the university.

The essay, published by Chicago Booth’s Capital Ideas, details Fama’s own history but also a short history of finance including how the efficient-market hypothesis was born.

Fama, who is often called the “father of modern finance”, calls the Black-Scholes paper on option pricing the most important paper in economics of the twentieth century.

“No other paper has to be learned by every single economist getting a PhD and has also created an industry – the derivatives industry.”

Fama, who also got into Harvard, chose to go to Chicago because he was advised that “it was more academically oriented than Harvard”.

He is the Robert R McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, and received a MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Sponsored Content

“I love my work,” he says in the essay. “I have no intention of stopping as long as I’m breathing – and I may even do it after that.”

To read the full essay, click here.

Leave a Comment

Sort content by

Schapiro considers action on pay to play

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently considering pay-to-play activities and will report back on any proposed action in the next few weeks, according to its chairman Mary Schapiro, speaking via video at the annual International Corporate Governance Network conference this week. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Hermes chief calls for mandate overhaul

Pension funds should demand an overhaul in the product offerings of funds managers and change the terms of mandates to incorporate environmental, social and governance issues in portfolios, according to Colin Melvin, chief executive of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, who pointed to a number of funds in the UK, including the owner of Hermes, BT

How to allocate if the world has changed forever

The financial crisis has challenged pension funds to rethink standard asset allocation models, but as Jonathan Armitage, head of US equities at Schroders observes, a lot of investors are questioning whether they need to react. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Crisis fails to derail support for ESG

A new report commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has found environmental, social and governance investment criteria in emerging markets are being embraced by most of the asset management community despite the economic crisis. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

USS, ABP and PGGM collaborate on real estate

Three of Europe’s largest institutional investors have teamed up to investigate the way environmental issues are assessed and managed by real estate companies. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Shareholder influence under question: ICGN conference

The ability to appoint and dismiss company board directors is the most important shareholder right according to an overwhelming majority of delegates at the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) annual conference, who were more cautious on whether shareholders could actually influence corporate governance once they had the right to vote. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2

Previous