The 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded today to Professor Oliver Hart, a graduate – and honorary graduate – of the University of Warwick.

Professor Hart earned the prestigious accolade for his work on Contract Theory, his research focusing on the various contractual relationships which allow society to function - from employment contracts to credit contracts.

Currently the Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Professor Hart gained a BA in Mathematics at King's College, Cambridge in 1969, an MA in Economics at Warwick in 1972, and a PhD in Economics at Princeton University in 1974.

He then became a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge and a Professor at the London School of Economics. In 1984, he returned to the US, where he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, since 1993, at Harvard University.

In 2012, Professor Hart received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Warwick, and is an Honorary Professor in Warwick’s Department of Economics.

You can hear a podcast he recorded at Warwick in 2012 here.

For more information on the Nobel Prize, click here.

10th October 2016

Further information, contact:

Luke Walton, International Press Officer

+44 7824 540 863

+44 2476 150 868

L dot Walton dot 1 at warwick dot ac dot uk