Background
Taggart, Robert Alexander was born on August 13, 1946 in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Son of Robert Alexander and Lillian Marie (Earley.
Taggart, Robert Alexander was born on August 13, 1946 in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Son of Robert Alexander and Lillian Marie (Earley.
Bachelor of Arts(Mathematics) Amherst College, Master of Arts, 1974. SM, Doctor of Philosophy Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., USA, 1969, 1974.
Assistant Professor, Association Professor Finance, Northwestern University, 1974-1983. Economics, Federal Reserve Bank Boston,
7. Visiting Association Professor, Harvard Business School, 1982-1984.
Professor Finance, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, since 1978. Editor, Finance Management. Association Editor, / Fin and Quantitative Analysis.
Editor, Finance Management journal, 1984-1987. Contributor articles to finance journals.
As a student, I was primarily interested in the linkage between the financial and real sectors of the economy. I wanted to understand how the structure of the financial system affects capital formation and how the financial sector interacts with the corporate sector in allocating capital. I took up the study of finance initially in the hope of finding some clues to this linkage.
In one sense, I found the answer that finance theory offers to be disappointing. Over and over, the theory’s fundamental results stress that purely financial transactions are a veil. Only the real side of the economy matters.
However, this theme does serve to emphasise the fluidity and adaptability of the financial system. Financial transactions can typically be performed by many agents and in many substitute ways. Any profit opportunities afforded by such transactions can be expected to erode rather quickly under the force of competition.
What has come to fascinate me is the continual adaptation of this competitive process. Much of my work has centred around the ways in which nonfinancial corporations adapt their financing to such forces as taxation, government regulation, inflation and incentive problems. I have also
studied financial intermediaries’ adaptation to these forces, particularly government regulation and taxation.
This work has not, of course, provided a complete understanding of the linkage between financial and real sectors. It has, however, convinced me that any solid explanation of this linkage should account for the process by which corporations, financial institutions, governments and households all compete with one another to provide financial services.
Member American Finance Association, Finance Management Association, American Economic Association, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Karen Kelly, June 1, 1974. Children: Michael A., Alice C., Mary E.