Stewart Myers

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Stewart Myers

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Stewart C. Myers is the Robert C. Merton (1970) Professor of Finance, Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

Myers is past President of the American Finance Association, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a principal of the Brattle Group, Inc. His textbook Principles of Corporate Finance (12th ed., with Richard Brealey and Franklin Allen) is known as the “bible” of financial management. 

His research focuses on the valuation of real and financial assets, corporate finance, and financial aspects of government regulation of business. He introduced both the tradeoff and pecking order theories of capital structure, and was the first to recognize the importance of real options in corporate finance. 

Myers is the author of influential research papers on many topics, including adjusted present value (APV), rate of return regulation, capital allocation and risk management in banking and insurance, real options, payout policy, and moral hazard and information issues in financing decisions. He has served as a director of Entergy Corporation and CAT Ltd. and as a manager of the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance. 

He holds an AB from Williams College and an MBA and a PhD from Stanford University.

 

Current Research Focus: Myers's current research focuses on three areas: (1) Theoretical models of the long-run dynamics of capital investment, payout and borrowing decisions by mature public corporations. The models have important implications for corporate governance as well as corporate finance generally, (2) Efficient allocation of risk capital by banks and other financial firms, and (3) Valuation of real options, accounting for option leverage, taxes and implications for capital structure.

Honors

Stew Myers is a co-winner of the 2009 III Edition of the Jaime Fernández de Araoz Corporate Finance Award

Stew Myers has been appointed as a Research Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Stewart Myers wins Onassis Prize for Finance

Publications

"Real Options and Hidden Leverage."

Myers, Stewart and James A. Read, Jr. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance Vol. 34, No. 1 (2022): 67-80.

"Risk Capital: Theory and Applications."

Erel, Isil, Stewart Myers, and James A. Read, Jr. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance Vol. 33, No. 1 (2021): 8-21.

"Real Options, Taxes and Financial Leverage."

Myers, Stewart and James A. Read Jr. Critical Finance Review Vol. 9, No. 1-2 (2020): 29-76.

"The Dynamics of Investment, Payout and Debt."

Lambrecht, Bart M. and Stewart Myers. The Review of Financial Studies Vol. 30, No. 11 (2017): 3759–3800.

"Agency Dynamics in Corporate Finance."

Lambrecht, Bart M. and Stewart Myers. Annual Review of Financial Economics Vol. 8, (2016): 53-80.

"A Theory of Risk Capital."

Erel, Isil, Stewart Myers and James A. Read, Jr. Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 118, No. 3 (2015): 620-635.

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