Herman Wold

Herman Wold
Born(1908-12-25)25 December 1908
Died16 February 1992(1992-02-16) (aged 83)
NationalitySwedish
Alma materUniversity of Stockholm
Known forWold's theorem
MA() representation of stationary stochastic processes
Wold decomposition (operator theory)
Cramér–Wold theorem
Time series analysis
Utility theory
Consumer demand
Latent variable
Structural equation models
Consistent least squares estimation of recursive triangular systems
Causal inference in observational studies
Partial least squares regression
Scientific career
FieldsStatistics
Econometrics
InstitutionsUppsala University
Doctoral advisorHarald Cramér
Doctoral studentsSten Malmquist
Peter Whittle
Karl Jöreskog

Herman Ole Andreas Wold (25 December 1908 – 16 February 1992) was a Norwegian-born econometrician and statistician who had a long career in Sweden. Wold was known for his work in mathematical economics, in time series analysis, and in econometric statistics.

In mathematical statistics, Wold contributed the Cramér–Wold theorem characterizing the normal distribution and developed the Wold decomposition in time series analysis. In microeconomics, Wold advanced utility theory and the theory of consumer demand. In multivariate statistics, Wold contributed the methods of partial least squares (PLS) and graphical models. Wold's work on causal inference from observational studies was decades ahead of its time, according to Judea Pearl.[1]

  1. ^ Causality, 2nd ed.