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

A Simple Theory of the Financial Crisis; or, Why Fischer Black Still Matters

In this month’s Financial Analysts Journal, Tyler Cowen professor of economics at George Mason University, Virginia makes sense of the current financial crisis by drawing on some of Fischer Black’s ideas. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Arizona expands allocation ranges, freezes private investments

The $27 billion Arizona State Retirement System has extended its asset allocation ranges and postponed the approval of new commitments to private market investments until the end of June, unless an overriding investment opportunity exception exists. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Bps speak: the real value in internal management

A 10 per cent increase in internal investment management results in a 4.2 basis points increase in net value added to a pension fund’s bottom line, according to analysis of the CEM Benchmarking database, which has data on more than 380 global pension funds from 1991 to 2007. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Where the growth is: mandate trends in 2009

As a recent survey by US management consultant Casey Quirk showed, for investment management, 2009 is all about beta. Director of research, Ben Phillips, spoke to Kristen Paech about mandates that pension funds are investigating, and the role alpha may play. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

That market’s got style: investing through cycles

Style investing remains a powerful tool in periods of market volatility and, in particular, style analysis reminds investors to be aware of the distinction between overall market risk and stock specific risk. Amanda White spoke with director of Style Research, Robert Schwob. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Risk reduction pays off for ABP

The giant Dutch pension fund ABP’s plan to reduce investment risk as a means of recovery from an underfunded position is paying dividends, with the coverage ratio increasing from 86 to 91 per cent from March to April. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Previous