Harry Markowitz, Nobel-Winning Pioneer of Modern Portfolio Theory, Dies at 95
Harry M. Markowitz, an economist who launched a revolution in finance, upending traditional thinking about buying stocks and earning the Nobel in economic science in 1990 for his breakthrough, died on Thursday in San Diego. He was 95.
The death, at a hospital, was caused by pneumonia and sepsis, MaryMcDonald, a longtime assistant to Dr. Markowitz, said.
Until Dr. Markowitz came along, the investment world assumed that the best stock-market strategy was simply to choose the shares of a group of companies that were thought to have the best prospects.
But in 1952, he published his dissertation, “Portfolio Selection,” which overturned this common sense approach with what became known as modern portfolio theory, widely referred to as M.P.T.