Patrick Bolton

Patrick Bolton, a professor at Columbia University, is widely recognized for his foundational work on incomplete contracts and optimal debt structures. He explores how contracts are realistically designed when parties cannot perfectly anticipate all future contingencies.

He is a Belgian-American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He holds joint appointments in the business and economics departments at the institution.

Bolton has recently pivoted his contract theory research toward green finance and the economics of climate change. He actively studies how financial contracts and central banking policies can be structured to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy.

His research focuses extensively on the interactions between financial markets and corporate governance. He analyzes how agency costs, managerial incentives, and capital structure dictate the way corporations operate and invest.