Franco Modigliani
Italian-American economist and Nobel laureate known for the life-cycle hypothesis, Modigliani–Miller theorem, and NIRU concept.
The Independent obituary notes he dedicated his entire life to his students, many of whom became influential policymakers.[1]
Quick Facts
- Born
- 18 June 1918
- Birthplace
- Rome, Italy
- Died
- 25 September 2003
- Place of death
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Citizenship
- Italy, United States
- Field
- Financial economics
- Education
- The New School (PhD); Sapienza University of Rome (Laurea)
- Doctoral advisor
- Jacob Marschak
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
He left Italy for Paris with his girlfriend Serena Calabi, then returned to Rome to defend his laurea thesis on 22 July 1939.[2] He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1946 and taught at Columbia, Bard, Illinois, Carnegie Mellon, and finally MIT from 1962.[3] At age seventeen he began studies at Sapienza University of Rome, and after winning first prize in a national economics contest, he received an award personally from Benito Mussolini.[4] His initial support for fascism ended soon after Italy enacted racial laws.[2]
According to an obituary in The Independent, Modigliani, together with Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow, helped shape the economics program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1]
What the cited sources add
The Guardian obituary reports Modigliani lost his father at age 13 and switched from medicine to law after a low tolerance for suffering.[5] The same source notes his national essay competition brought him into contact with the anti-fascist opposition through his future wife's family.[5] The Independent obituary describes how Modigliani and his wife crossed the Atlantic days before World War II, and he earned his living selling books while learning mathematics for the first time.[1] The Vineyard Gazette obituary states Serena Modigliani was active in progressive politics, notably with the League of Women Voters.[6]
The Independent obituary reports Modigliani was furious with Silvio Berlusconi up to his last days.[1] The Guardian obituary notes he opposed the Bush administration's tax cuts and kept alive the Keynesian tradition through disagreements with Milton Friedman.[5]
References
- Professor Franco Modigliani, obituary, The Independent, 28 September 2003. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
- Wikipedia, "Franco Modigliani" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Franco Modigliani, autobiographical notes, Nobel Prize organization website, 1985 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Franco Modigliani" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Professor Franco Modigliani, obituary, The Independent, 28 September 2003 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Franco Modigliani" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Parisi, Daniela (2005) "Five Italian Articles Written by the Young Franco Modigliani (1937–1938)", Rivista Internazional di Scienze Sociali, 113(4), pp. 555–557; "Franco Modigliani" by Daniel B. Klein and Ryan Daza, in "The Ideological Migration of the Economics Laureates", Econ Journal Watch, 10(3), September 2013, pp. ; Franco Modigliani, autobiographical notes, Nobel Prize organization website, 1985; "An Institutional History of Italian Economics in the Interwar Period", Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, p. 146–147; Luca Michelini, Il nazi en.wikipedia.org
- Adams, "Franco Modigliani", The Guardian, 1 October 2003. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
- "Chilmarker Serena Modigliani, 91, Escaped Fascism", Vineyard Gazette, 9 October 2008. facts only, no text reused. vineyardgazette.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Franco Modigliani (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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