Andrew Michael Spence, born in 1943, is an American economist and has been Professor at Harvard University and Stanford University, amongst others. He is currently a lecturer at New York University. His researches and contributions have been mainly in the field of economics of information, and together with economists George A. Akerlof and Joseph E. Stiglitz, Spence was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 for his work regarding asymmetric information.

Spence paid special attention to the study of those situations in which if certain market participants have more information than the rest, they will take care of disseminating this information to everybody. For instance, it shows how companies use their dividend policy to signal their profitability to market analysts.

In his book “Job Market Signaling”, 1973, he develops Akerlof’s previous studies and applies them to the labour market: when hiring a new employee, and as the firm does not know the labour value that this potential employee will add, they will offer an average salary level that will not match what the best candidates deserve. It is therefore important to inform others about the features that are not readily observable, what Spence called signalling. Academic degrees are a way of signalling inside the labour market as they are used to show above average labour value.

Merton Howard Miller, 1923-2000, was an American economist who taught at the London School of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University and lastly, and for most of his career, at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He also worked as public director on the Chicago Board of Trade (1983-1985) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 1990 until his death.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize of Economic Sciences in 1990 along with Harry Markowitz and William Sharpe for their work in the financial theory of economics. As stated by the Sveriges Riksbank, which awards the prize, Miller, Sharpe and Markowitz were awarded the prize  “for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics”.

Merton Miller’s largest contribution to the financial field was the Modigliani-Miller theorem, formulated along with Franco Modigliani, and which demonstrates that under certain conditions, a firm´s value will remain unchanged, independently of whether equity or debt financing is used. Miller and Modigliani addressed this topic in his article “The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment”, 1958

Maurice Félix Charles Allais, 1911-2010, was a French economist, physicist and Professor of Economics at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (Mines ParisTech). His pioneer contributions to the theory of markets and to the efficient utilization of resources, had him win the Noble Prize in Economic Sciences in 1988. He defined himself as a “Liberal Socialist”

Allais took Léon Walras’ and Vilfredo Pareto’s previous works regarding equilibrium and market efficiency, and developed them with a more rigorous mathematical formulation back up. He is also known for the Allais paradox, which is a breach in the decision theory, as it fails the expected utility theory. He was able to apply his theory of behaviour under uncertainty in the general equilibrium model, by demonstrating that a competitive allocation of risks leads to an optimal allocation of resources. Allais also made contributions in the area of monetary policy and studied the influence of non-rational behaviour in economic decisions, serving as an inspiration for Kahneman´s work.

Allais’ papers, always written in French, that stand out among his major works are: “Á la recherche d’une discipline économique” (In Search of an Economic Discipline), 1943, and “Économie et intérêt” (Economy and Interest), 1947.

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises, 1881-1973, was an Austrian economist and Professor at the universities of Vienna, Geneva and New York.  Mises greatly contributed to neoclassical economics and was one of the leaders of the Austrian school.

Mises was a staunch advocate of economic liberalism, based on the idea that demand and supply theory will lead to the resources’ most efficient allocation. He believed socialism would fail due to economic calculation problems, as it wouldn’t be able to produce an efficient price system. In his “Human Action: A Treatise on Economics”, 1949, he analyses both economic systems. His defence of the classical school led him to argue that any separation from orthodoxy would lead to socialism and the end of capitalism.

Mises also worked in the analysis of economic cycles, particularly in the monetary aspects, and his influences were clearly felt in two of the most notable members of the Chicago school: Friedrich A. von Hayek and Milton Friedman.

Leonard Jimmie Savage, 1917-1971, was an American mathematician specialised in statistics, and was a Professor at the University of Michigan and Yale University. He also worked in some statistics research institutes at different American universities.

In Savage’s most famous work “Foundations of Statistics” 1954, he introduces several elements on game theory and he elaborates the theory of subjective expected utility, which confronts the relation between the probability for an event and the utility of the event for a certain subject. To this effect, he formulated an axiom that follows coherent behaviours, such as probability and utility consistent with the principle of utility maximisation. Through his work, Savage established the bases for Bayesian statistics and its application to game theory, as well as a criterion used in decision theory known as minimax regret.