Myron Scholes

Research Statement

Myron Scholes’ research has focused on understanding uncertainty and its effect on asset prices and the value of options, including flexibility options. He has studied the effects of tax policy on asset prices and incentives. He studied the effects of the taxation of dividends on the prices of securities, the interaction of incentives and taxes in executive compensation, capital structure issues with taxation, and the effects of taxes on the optimal liquidation of assets. He wrote several articles on investment banking and incentives and developed a new theory of tax planning under uncertainty and information asymmetry which led to a book with Mark A. Wolfson called Taxes and Business Strategies: A Planning Approach (Prentice Hall, 1991).

Bio

Myron Scholes is the Frank E. Buck Professor of Finance, Emeritus, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, and co-originator of the Black-Scholes options pricing model. Scholes was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1997 for his new method of determining the value of derivatives. Scholes is currently the Chairman of the Board of Economic Advisers of Stamos Partners. Previously he served as the Chairman of Platinum Grove Asset Management and on the Dimensional Fund Advisors Board of Directors, American Century Mutual Fund Board of Directors and the Cutwater Advisory Board. He was a principal and Limited Partner at Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. and a Managing Director at Salomon Brothers. Other positions Scholes held include the Edward Eagle Brown Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Director of the Center for Research in Security Prices, and Professor of Finance at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Scholes earned his PhD at the University of Chicago.

Academic Degrees

• PhD, University of Chicago, 1969
• MBA, University of Chicago, 1964
• BA, McMaster University (Ontario), 1961

Academic Appointments

• At Stanford University since 1983, Emeritus since 1996
• Associate Professor, University of Chicago, 1973-1983
• Associate Professor, MIT, 1968-1973

Awards and Honors

• Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, The Nobel Foundation, 1997

Teaching

Degree Courses

2018-19

MGTECON 343: The Evolution of Finance

This course provides a framework to understand how uncertainty and technology affect the evolution of finance (and businesses generally), with heavy emphasis on recent developments and future trends. In recent years Myron Scholes has given about...

2017-18

MGTECON 343: The Evolution of Finance

This course provides a framework to understand how uncertainty and technology affect the evolution of finance (and businesses generally), and its illustration with heavy emphasis on recent developments and future trends. In recent years Myron...

2016-17

MGTECON 343: The Evolution of Finance

This course was originally designed to provide an overview of the crisis in financial markets that began in 2007, and of the various policies that were devised in response to the crisis'' both short-term stabilization efforts and longer-term...

Insights by Stanford Business

writtenMyron Scholes and Darrell Duffie Assess the Fallout in Cyprus

March 19, 2013

Two scholars explain what could happen next in Nicosia — and the rest of Europe.

writtenWhy Europe Needs a New Narrative

November 19, 2012

Can the eurozone fix itself in the absence of a catastrophe?