Sir Oliver Hart is an economist and professor, best known for his pioneering work in contract theory. Hart has made significant contributions to the fields of economics and law, particularly regarding contract law for which he was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics, also known as the Nobel Prize in Economics, in 2016. Hart earned his PHD in economics at Princeton University in 1974 and returned to the US permanently in 1984 to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the Lewis P. & Linda C. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University and was previously a lecturer of Economics at Cambridge. He is the director and founder of the Oliver Hart Research Center of Contracts and Governance at the East China University of Science and Technology. His influential book Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure is considered a key text in the field. In 2023 he was made a Knight Bachelor by HRH King Charles III. Read more.