(Photo: Koby Kalmanovich)
Professor Haim Levy is awarded the EMET Prize for the role his studies played in the formation of the modern finance theory and its development, for his contribution to the development of the Stochastic Dominance theory, which paved the way to a better understanding of the modern finance theory and allowed for the development of investment decision making rules under uncertainty.
Professor Haim Levy was born inJerusalem in 1939. Following his military service in the Paratroop Brigade he began his studies at the Hebrew University. He received his PhD in 1969 and in 1976 he was promoted to full professorship.
Already as a student he published articles in leading international financial journals, and has so far published about 20 books and hundreds of articles, among them those he co-authored with two Nobel Prize laureates. He developed a new field in financial economics called Stochastic Dominance, used as a cornerstone in the decision-making process under uncertainty. His unique development was frequently applied in economics, agriculture and medicine as well as other fields. He also developed economic models for risk-management, especially models for risk-reduction in investment, by means of international diversification and by means of merges and acquisitions.
His scientific achievements in financial economics have won him a leading position in the world of economics. In an article published in the international press, surveying the publications of all financial economists in top journals over a period of 50 years, he appeared as the most prolific researcher in the field worldwide. The two Nobel Prize winners in economics for 1990 stated that to a large extent their work draws on Prof. Levy’s pioneering writings. He has won many awards, including the Hebrew University’s Prize for Excellence in Research for 1996. As a token of respect for his scientific achievements and contribution to financial economics, an international conference on the theme of Stochastic Dominance, of which he is the founder, was held in London in his honor in 2005.
He served as economic advisor to the Bank of Israel; the Israeli Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor; Ministry of National Infrastructures as well other government offices.
