Philip H. Dybvig

Philip H. Dybvig is an American economist and the Boatmen's Bancshares Professor of Banking and Finance at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in Saint Louis. In 2022, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Prior to joining Washington University in Saint Louis, Dybvig taught at Princeton University and was tenured at Yale University. He has published two textbooks and more than thirty-five articles in leading journals.

35 years later: Diamond-Dybvig model of bank runs (Nov 2017)

In October 2022, Philip H. Dybvig was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his groundbreaking research on banks and financial crises. Ben Bernanke and Douglas Diamond shared the award with Dybvig. All three economists "have significantly improved our understanding of the role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises. An important finding in their research is why avoiding bank collapses is vital," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Dybvig was selected because his theory shows how banks offer an optimal system and "by acting as intermediaries that accept deposits from many savers, banks can allow depositors to access their money when they wish, while also offering long-term loans to borrowers."

Philip H. Dybvig is well-known for his Diamond-Dybvig paper published in 1983. The paper written with Douglas Diamond is one of the most widely cited papers in finance and economics. The Diamond-Dybvig model shows how banks serve the economy by creating liquidity and how this liquidity creation subjects the banks to runs if there is no deposit insurance or other protection.

Philip H. Dybvig earned a bachelor of arts in both math and physics from Indiana University in 1976. He went on the study economics in the Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania. He transferred to Yale University to complete his master's in economics in 1978 and his Ph.D. in economics in 1979.