Professor Eugene F. Fama and Professor Lars Peter Hansen of the Booth School of Business were awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2013. Professor Robert J. Shiller, of Yale School of Management, was also awarded a prize. All three professors were granted the honor based upon “their empirical analysis of asset prices,” which focuses on the reasoning behind why the pieces of stocks and bonds change over time.
Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago, said, “In their work, Gene Fama and Lars Hansen have demonstrated the University’s mission to address the complex challenges facing society with innovative scholarship. In doing so, they have helped shape the study of economics and the nature of today’s financial markets. We are very gratified to see those accomplishments recognized internationally, and proud to count them among the Nobel laureates at the University of Chicago”
Fama credited much of his success to the University, saying, “Whatever I am owes two-thirds—maybe three-quarters, maybe 90 percent—to the University of Chicago. Over the years, the school [and] the economics department has only gotten stronger. The interaction that you get from your colleagues is so influential in building your work that you cannot underestimate its impact.”
Fama and Hansen are two of nearly 90 scholars associated with the University of Chicago to receive Nobel Prizes, 28 of which were in economics. Four other University professors are also Nobel laureates in economics, including Roger Myerson, James Heckman, Robert E. Lucas, Jr., and Gary Becker.