The Nobel Prize, Life, and Legacy

Abstract

Each in their own way, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes redefined finance theory and application in a way that is perhaps more substantial than anyone before or since. Many others, such as Irving Fischer and his intertemporal model of consumption and savings, made contributions that informed and defined the literature. Some, like John Maynard Keynes and his concept of liquidity preference, motivated others to further flesh out his idea. Even Franco Modigliani and his Life Cycle Model, and Harry Markowitz with his Modern Portfolio Theory, created new ways to look at old problems that may have been revolutionary but yet were unable to transcend their immediate application.