The Harry M. Markowitz Award has been created by New Frontier Advisors and the Journal of Investment Management to recognize the best research paper combining potential practical significance and theoretical quality, according to a joint statement Wednesday by the two organizations.
The recipient of the award will receive $10,000, with $5,000 each for two runners-up.
The annual award is named for Mr. Markowitz, the 1990 Nobel laureate in economics and widely recognized founder of modern portfolio theory.
The award recognizes “the seminal and transcendent impact of Dr. Markowitz’s work as a financial economist and mathematician on both theoretical finance and the practice of asset management,” the statement said. “The award has been established to honor his legacy and to support future research and innovation in practical asset management.”
The initial awards are scheduled to be presented next March at the Journal of Investment Management’s spring conference in San Diego.
Papers that will qualify for the award will come from those published in the Journal of Investment Management each calendar year, starting this year. The journal’s associate editors will initially screen the papers, with the final candidates chosen by a special panel consisting of Mr. Markowitz and other Nobel laureates in economics, William F. Sharpe, who also won in 1990, and Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes, who both won in 1997. All four are members of the journal’s advisory board.
The papers will be judged primarily on practical significance, technical excellence and theoretical quality, the statement said.
New Frontier, an institutional research and investment advisory firm, is funding the awards. The journal is independently published by Gifford Fong Associates, an asset management, consulting and investment analytics firm. H. Gifford Fong is president of the firm and editor of the journal.
