Robert Pindyck

Robert Stephen Pindyck (/ˈpɪndaɪk/ PIN-dyke; born January 5, 1945) is an American economist, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Professor of Economics and Finance at Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Tel-Aviv University, Harvard University, and Columbia University.

Professor Pindyck's PhD dissertation dealt with the application of optimal control theory to the design of monetary and fiscal policy for macroeconomic stabilization. He then turned to microeconomics, with early work focused on energy and natural resource markets. This included theoretical studies of resource exploration and depletion, and econometric studies of markets for oil, natural gas, and other commodities, as well as futures markets and the behavior of futures prices. Much of his work addressed the role and implications of uncertainty for market behavior, pricing, and production, and how various kinds of uncertainty affect irreversible investment decisions. His more recent work has been in the area of environmental economics, including the economics of climate change, and how government policy can address potential global catastrophic events.

With Avinash Dixit he is author of Investment Under Uncertainty (Princeton University Press, 1994; ISBN 0691034109), the first textbook exclusively about the real options approach to investments, and described as “a born-classic” [1] in view of its importance to the theory. With Daniel L. Rubinfeld he is the author of Microeconomics (9th Edition, Pearson, 2018; ISBN 9780134184241), and Econometric Models and Economic Forecasts (4th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 1998; ISBN 0079132928). His published papers have covered topics in microeconomics and industrial organization, the behavior of natural resource and commodity markets, financial markets, capital investment decisions, the economics of R&D and the valuation of patents, environmental economics, and the economic and policy implications of potential global catastrophes.

In addition to his academic research and teaching, Professor Pindyck has been a consultant to a large number of public and private organizations.

Pindyck received bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and physics from M.I.T. in 1966, a master's degree in electrical engineering from M.I.T. in 1967, and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T. in 1971.[2]