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Myron S. Scholes

Myron S. Scholes
Professor Emeritus, Finance
Contact Info
MyronS.Scholes
Frank E. Buck Professor of Finance, Emeritus
Academic Area: 
Finance

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

Publications

Journal Articles

Myron S. Scholes, Mark A. Wolfson. Journal of Financial Economics. September 1989, Vol. 24, Issue 1, Pages 7–35.
Myron S. Scholes. Journal of Futures Research. July 1981, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Pages 265–286.
George M. Constantinides, Myron S. Scholes. Journal of Finance. May 1980, Vol. 35, Issue 2, Pages 439-449.
Merton H. Miller, Myron S. Scholes. Journal of Financial Economics. December 1978, Vol. 6, Issue 4, Pages 333-364.
Fischer Black, Myron S. Scholes. Journal of Financial Economics. May 1974, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Pages 1–22.

Books

Myron S. Scholes, Mark A. Wolfson, Merle Erickson, Michelle Hanlon, Edward Maydew, Terry Shevlin Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2015.

Working Papers

The Cost of Constraints: Risk Management, Agency Theory and Asset Prices | PDF
Ashwin Alankar, Peter Blaustein, Myron S. Scholes, July 62014

Courses Taught

Degree Courses

2015-16

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...

2014-15

This course discusses the financial crisis of 2008-9, developments since that time, and the future of finance. We consider how regulation, technology, and the changing world economy will create challenges and opportunities. We have guest speakers...

Insights by Stanford Business

March 19, 2013
Two scholars explain what could happen next in Nicosia — and the rest of Europe.
November 19, 2012
Can the eurozone fix itself in the absence of a catastrophe?

School News

October 1, 1997
The prize was awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for "a new method to determine the value of derivatives."