Dr. Lars Peter Hansen is an internationally known leader in economic dynamics and the recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He was elected an Honorary Academician of Academia Sinica this year (2014) and received an Academician medal on November 7, 2014. After the ceremony, Dr. Hansen gave a lecture entitled “Uncertainty and Valuation” in the Humanities and Social Sciences Building, Academia Sinica.

Dr. Hansen is the David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, Statistics, and the College at the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty of the University of Chicago’s Department of Economics in 1981 and has served as department chairman and director of graduate studies. Dr. Hansen also serves as Co-chair and Director of the Becker Friedman Institute. He was one of the forces behind the 2008 creation of the Milton Friedman Institute, the predecessor of this institute and served as its founding director.

Dr. Hansen's early research in econometrics was aimed at developing time series statistical methods to investigate one part of an economic model without having to fully specify and estimate all of the model ingredients. The applications he explored with several coauthors such as Dr. Kenneth J. Singleton, Dr. Scott F.Richard, Dr. Robert Hodrick, and Dr. Ravi Jagannathan studied models of asset valuation, identifying and clarifying empirical puzzles where real-world financial and economic data were at odds with prevailing academic models.

Dr. Hansen is recognized for making fundamental advances in our understanding of how economic agents cope with changing and risky environments. He has contributed to the development of statistical methods designed to explore the interconnections between macroeconomic indicators and assets in financial markets. These methods are widely used in empirical research in financial economics.

Dr. Hansen’s recent work focuses on uncertainty and its relationship to long run risks in the macro economy. He explores how models that incorporate ambiguities, beliefs, and skepticism of consumers and investors can explain economic and financial data and reveal the long-term consequences of policy options. Dr. Hansen, Dr. Thomas J. Sargent, and coauthors recently developed methods for modeling economic decision-making in environments in which uncertainty is hard to quantify. They explore the consequences for models with financial markets and characterize environments in which the beliefs of economic actors are fragile.

Currently, Dr. Hansen is co-principal investigator, along with Dr. Andrew Lo on a research initiative with the Macro Financial Modeling Group (MFM) that works to develop macroeconomic models with enhanced linkages to financial markets, with the aim of providing better policy tools for monitoring so-called systemic risks to the economy. He is also contributing his expertise on decision-making under uncertainty to a collaborative effort as part of the Center for Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy (RDCEP) to develop dynamic economic models in which economic activity could influence the climate.

Before receiving the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Dr. Hansen received several other awards and honors. He won the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Economics, Finance and Management. He also received the CME Group-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Applications in 2008 and the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics from Northwestern University in 2006.

Dr. Hansen is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Finance Association, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past president of the Econometric Society.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and political science from Utah State University and a doctorate in economics from the University of Minnesota.  Dr. Hansen also received an honorary doctorate from Utah State University in 2012.