13 Facts About Herman Wold

Herman Ole Andreas Wold was a Norwegian-born econometrician and statistician who had a long career in Sweden.

In multivariate statistics, Herman Wold contributed the methods of partial least squares and graphical models.

Herman Wold was the youngest in a family of six brothers and sisters.

Herman Wold had a long and productive career, spanning six decades.

In 1927 Herman Wold enrolled at the Stockholm University to study mathematics.

Herman Wold started work on a PhD on stochastic processes with Cramer as supervisor.

Herman Wold's thesis, A Study in the analysis of stationary time series, was an important contribution.

In 1938 a government committee appointed Herman Wold to do an econometric study of consumer demand in Sweden.

Herman Wold noted some limitation of the maximum-likelihood approach favoured by Haavelmo and the Cowles Commission; Herman Wold cautioned that the literature contained some exaggerated claims for the superiority of maximum-likelihood estimation.

In 1945 to 1965, Herman Wold proposed and elaborated on his "recursive causal chain" model, which was more appropriate for many applications, according to Herman Wold: For such "recursive causal chain" models, the least squares method was computationally efficient and enjoyed superior theoretical properties, which it lacked for general time-series models.

Herman Wold then moved to Gothenburg, retiring from there in 1975.

In 1960 Herman Wold became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Herman Wold was a member of the Prize Committee for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel from 1968 to 1980.