Merton’s practical trading background shaped his economics career.

Evidence

Robert C. Merton had been an amateur investor since the age of 10 or 11, had graduated from stocks to options and warrants, and had come to realize that he had “a much better intuition and `feel’ into economic matters than physical ones.” In the spring of 1968, Samuelson appointed the mathematically talented young Merton as his research assistant, even allocating him a desk inside his MIT office (Merton interview; Merton 1998, pp. 15-16). — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 592

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether Merton’s lived trading experience made his models more practically performative than purely theoretical ones.