Merton H.Miller——Autobiography
I was born in Boston，Massachusetts on May 16，1923，the only child of Joel and Sylvia Miller.My father，an attorney，was a graduate of Harvard University（A.B.1916）and in that one respect，at least，I followed in his footsteps，entering Harvard in 1940 and graduating in 1943（A.B.，magna cum laude，Class of 1944）.My main interest，however，was in economics，not law.One of my college classmates-indeed we were in the same section of the introductory survey course，Economics A——was Robert M.Solow，the laureate in Economics for 1987.
During the war years I worked as an economist first in the Division of Tax Research of the U.S.Treasury Department and subsequently in the Division of Research and Statistics of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.In 1949，I decided to return to graduate school and chose Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore primarily because Fritz Machlup was then a leading member of its small，but very distinguished faculty.
My first academic appointment after receiving my doctorate from Hopkins in 1952 was Visiting Assistant Lecturer at the London School of Economics for 1952－1953.From there I went to Carnegie Institute of Technology（now Carnegie-Mellon University）whose Graduate School of Industrial Administration[20]was the first and most influential of the new wave of research-oriented U.S.business schools.Among my colleagues at Carnegie were Herbert Simon（Economics Laureate 1978）and Franco Modigliani（Economics Laureate 1985）.Modigliani and I published the first of our joint M＆M papers on corporation finance in 1958 and we collaborated on several subsequent ones until well into the mid-1960's.
In 1961，I left Carnegie for the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago where I have been ever since except for a one-year visiting professorship at the University of Louvain in Belgium during 1966－1967.At Chicago，where I am currently Robert R.McCormick Distinguished Service Professor，most of my work continued to be focussed on corporate finance until the early 1980's when I became a public director of the Chicago Board of Trade.My research interests since then have shifted strongly towards the economic and regulatory[21]problems of the financial services industry，and especially of the securities and options exchanges.I am currently serving as a public director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where I had served earlier as Chairman of its special academic panel to conduct the postmortem on the Crash of October 19－20，1987.
I continue to be an activist supporter of free-market solutions to economic problems，very much in the tradition of my fellow Chicago laureates，Milton Friedman（1976），Theodore Schultz（1979）and George Stigler（1982）.(https://www.daowen.com)
The untimely death in 1969 of my first wife，Eleanor，the mother of my then 3 young daughters，was a heavy personal blow.I have since remarried and my wife Katherine and I divide our time between a Hyde Park townhouse during the week，and a country retreat on a working farm（though not worked by us）in Woodstock，Illinois on the weekends.Like some other weekend retreaters my hobby has become brush-cutting and maintenance[22]generally，plus a little gardening.Unlike some of my more athletic fellow laureates，however，the closest I get to recreational[23]exercise these days is watching the Chicago Bears from my season-ticket seats in the south-end zone of frigid Soldier Field.
威廉·夏普是美国斯坦福大学商学院金融学教授，由于他于1964年提出资本市场理论（后由林特和墨辛等人进一步发展）而获得1990年度诺贝尔经济学奖。
威廉·夏普提出的资本市场理论主要是分析证券投资预期收益和市场风险间的关系，并解释了证券市场价格的形成。
威廉·夏普认为马柯维茨的证券投资资产选择理论在计算上非常复杂，他认为只要计算一种证券对证券指数的相互离差就可以大大简化马氏模型。因为每一种证券价格的变化与证券指数有关。
他将风险分为两种，一种是系统风险；另一种是非系统风险。系统风险是指影响所有证券价格的因素，如经济、政治、利率和通货膨胀因素，系统风险也可称为不可避免风险，这种风险不能通过多元化投资而消除。非系统风险是指由企业或行业本身的因素而产生的风险，如管理能力、产品以及消费者偏好等。这些风险可由多元化投资而加以消除，因而称为可避免的风险。消除可避免风险的关键是进行证券投资的有效组合。