Xavier Gabaix (born August 1971) is a
French economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
, currently the Pershing Square Professor of Economics and Finance at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. He has been listed among the top 8 young economists in the world by ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
''.
He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the
Ecole Normale Supérieure, as well as a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in Economics from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
Gabaix mostly researches
asset pricing,
behavioral economics, and
macroeconomics. He has many notable and highly original research contributions on a number of subjects in
financial economics
Financial economics, also known as finance, is the branch of economics characterized by a "concentration on monetary activities", in which "money of one type or another is likely to appear on ''both sides'' of a trade". William F. Sharpe"Financia ...
, including the level of compensation of corporate executives, and behaviorally influenced decision making and its influence on asset market behaviour. In some of his work, he has made use of axiom-based models of the shapes of the tails of probability distributions. A hallmark of Professor Gabaix's research style is his propensity to take unexpected directions. He previously held a position as Associate Professor of Economics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.
Bounded Rationality
Gabaix continues to work on
bounded rationality. His pape
A Behavioral New Keynesian Modelwas called "the most interesting macroeconomic theory paper in years" by Bloomberg View in an article titled
Answering The Hardest Question In Economics The article goes on to suggest that the work "heralds a sea change in the way macroeconomic theory gets done."
Inelastic Markets Hypothesis
Gabaix, along with Ralph Koijen, the AQR Capital Management Distinguished Service Professor of Finance and Fama Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago, demonstrates that markets are not “elastic”, as textbooks say they should be.
According to The Economist, "The paper will surprise the typical economist, who, according to the authors’ surveys, believes that flows do not affect prices. It also threatens associated financial theories. One is the
Modigliani-Miller theorem, which says that it does not matter whether a company finances itself with equity or with debt. In inelastic markets, by contrast, a firm that issues debt to buy back its stock will find that it drives up both its own share price and the broader market."
Recognition
Gabaix was awarded the American Finance Association
Fischer Black Prize Fischer Black Prize is a memorial prize awarded in honor of Fischer Black that rewards individual financial research. The prize was established in 2002 and first awarded in 2003. It is awarded to a financial scientist for a body of work that demonst ...
, 2011. The award is given to a young researcher whose body of work "best exemplifies the Fischer Black hallmark of developing original research that is relevant to finance." He was the winner of the 2010
Bernacer Prize to the best European economist under 40 working in macro-finance for his original research contributions in financial and behavioral economics, including the consequences of seemingly irrational behavior on asset markets, and his analysis of the level of compensation of corporate executives.
In 2011, he was awarded the ''Prix du meilleur jeune économiste de France'', a prize awarded yearly to a French economist under forty years of age "who has combined recognized expertise with active participation in public debate". In 2012, he was one of the recipients of the
Lagrange Prize
The Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize is an annual International award created by the CRT Foundation with the scientific coordination of the ISI Foundation. The prize is awarded for scientific research in the field of complexity sciences, its appl ...
for research on complex systems, together with
Lada Adamic, a specialist in
social network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...
s analysis.
References
External links
NBER Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabaix, Xavier
1971 births
Living people
Financial economists
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
École Normale Supérieure alumni
New York University faculty
Harvard University faculty
Fellows of the Econometric Society
21st-century French economists
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty