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Gary Stanley Becker (born December 2, 1930) is an economist and a Nobel laureate. Born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Becker earned a B.A. at Princeton University in 1951 and a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1955. He taught at Columbia University from 1957 to 1968, and then returned to Chicago, where he holds joint appointments with the department of economics and sociology and the graduate school of business. Becker won the John Bates Clark Medal in 1967, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992, and received the United States' Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. [1] Boris Becker File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
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Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
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Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ...
For other uses, see University of Chicago (disambiguation). ...
Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ...
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to studying the science and empirics of economics, especially the American economy. ...
For other uses, see University of Chicago (disambiguation). ...
Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ...
Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ...
Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing the skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. ...
Gary Beckers rotten kid theorem suggests that family members, even if they are selfish, will act to help one another if their financial incentives are properly linked. ...
The biennial John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Named after the American Neoclassical economist John Bates Clark (1847-1938), it is considered...
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The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, is a prize awarded each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. ...
The Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States and is bestowed by the President of the United States (the other award which is considered its equivalent is the Congressional Gold Medal, which is bestowed by an...
is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Coordinates: , County Chartered as a City March 22, 1911 Government - Mayor John D. W. Reiley Area - City 10. ...
Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ...
For other uses, see University of Chicago (disambiguation). ...
Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ...
The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, also known as Chicago GSB, is one of the world’s leading business schools and the second oldest in the United States. ...
The biennial John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Named after the American Neoclassical economist John Bates Clark (1847-1938), it is considered...
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, is a prize awarded each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. ...
The Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States and is bestowed by the President of the United States (the other award which is considered its equivalent is the Congressional Gold Medal, which is bestowed by an...
Becker was one of the first economists to branch into what were traditionally considered topics belonging to sociology, including racial discrimination, crime, family organization, and drug addiction. (Cf. Freakonomics and Rational addiction.) He is known for arguing that many different types of human behavior can be seen as rational and utility maximizing. His approach can include altruistic behavior by defining individuals' utility appropriately. He is also among the foremost exponents of the study of human capital. Becker is also credited with the "rotten kid theorem". He is married to Guity Nashat, an historian of the Middle East whose research interests overlap his own. [2] Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge [1]) is the systematic and scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social action, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous...
The cover of this version of Freakonomics has a picture of what looks like an apple on the outside but is really an orange. ...
Kevin M. Murphy and Nobel Prize Winner Gary S. Becker published the Theory of Rational Addiction in the Journal of Political Economy in 1988 (Volume96: 675-700). ...
Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing the skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. ...
Gary Beckers rotten kid theorem suggests that family members, even if they are selfish, will act to help one another if their financial incentives are properly linked. ...
Nobel prize According to the Nobel Prize citation, his work can be categorized into four areas: - investments in human capital
- behavior of the family (or household), including distribution of work and allocation of time in the family
- crime and punishment
- discrimination on the markets for labor and goods.
Becker’s Nobel lecture, "Nobel Lecture: The Economic Way of Looking at Behavior", subsequently published in the Journal of Political Economy, reviews his four key areas of research. He explains that his framework of analysis is not a traditional self-interested motivation but rather an analysis based on a set of assumptions and individual preferences. Yes, agents are maximizing welfare but it is based on individual conception constrained by income, time, and imperfect memory and calculation capabilities. Much of his research focuses on the impact of the rising value of time as a result of economic growth. The Journal of Political Economy is a academic journal run by economists at the University of Chicago and published every two months. ...
Becker also received the National Medal of Science in 2000. He will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in November of 2007. National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor given by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics. ...
The Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States and is bestowed by the President of the United States (the other award which is considered its equivalent is the Congressional Gold Medal, which is bestowed by an...
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and the 43rd and current President of the United States. ...
Usually considered politically conservative, he wrote a monthly column for Business Week from 1985 to 2004, alternating with liberal Princeton economist Alan Blinder. In December 2004, Becker started a joint weblog with Judge Richard Posner entitled The Becker-Posner Blog. Ths article deals with conservatism as a political philosophy. ...
BusinessWeek is a business magazine published by McGraw-Hill. ...
Alan Stuart Blinder (October 14, 1945 - ) is an American economist, on the faculty of Columbia University, and was an adviser to John Kerry during the latters 2004 presidential campaign. ...
A weblog (now more commonly known as a blog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally, but not always, in reverse chronological order). ...
Richard Allen Posner (born January 11, 1939, in New York City) is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. ...
The Becker-Posner Blog is a economics weblog written by Gary Becker and Richard Posner that was launched in December of 2004. ...
Discrimination Becker often includes a variable of taste for discrimination in explaining behavior. He believes that people often mentally increase the cost of a transaction if it is with a minority they discriminate against. His theory held that competition decreases discrimination. If firms were able to specialize in employing mainly minorities and offer better product or service, such a firm could bypass discrepancy in wages etc. between equally productive blacks and whites or females and males.
Becker’s research found that when minorities are a very small percentage the cost of discrimination mainly falls on the minorities. However, when minorities represent a larger percentage of society then the cost of discrimination falls on both the minorities and the majority. He also pioneered research on the impact of self-fulfilling prophecies of teachers and employers on minorities. Such attitudes often lead to less investment in productive skills and education of minorities.
Crime and Punishment Becker’s interest in criminology arose when he was rushed for time one day. He had to weigh the cost and benefits of legally parking in an inconvenient garage versus in an illegal but convenient spot. After roughly calculating the probability of getting caught and potential punishment, Becker rationally opted for the crime. Becker surmised that other criminals make such rational decisions. However, such a premise went against conventional thought that crime was a result of mental illness and social oppression. Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. ...
While Becker acknowledged that many people operate under a high moral and ethical constraint, criminals rationally see that the benefits of their crime outweigh the cost such as the probability of apprehension, conviction, punishment, as well as their current set of opportunities. From the public policy perspective, since the cost of increasing the fine is marginal to that of the cost of increasing surveillance, one can conclude that the best policy is to maximize the fine and minimize surveillance. However, this conclusion has limits, not the least of which include ethical considerations.
One of the main differences between this theory and Jeremy Bentham's rational choice theory, which had been abandoned in criminology, is that if Bentham considered it possible to completely annihilate crime (through the panopticon), Becker's theory acknowledged that a society could not eradicate crime beneath a certain level. For example, if 25% of a supermarket's products were stolen, it would be very easy to reduce this rate to 15%, quite easy to reduce it until 5%, difficult to reduce it under 3% and nearly impossible to reduce it to zero (a feat which would cost the supermarket, in surveillance, etc., that it would outweigh the benefits). Jeremy Bentham (IPA: or ) (February 15, 1748 O.S. (February 26, 1748 N.S.) – June 6, 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. ...
Panopticon blueprint by Jeremy Bentham, 1791 The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. ...
Human Capital Becker’s research was fundamental in arguing for the augmentability of human capital. When his research was first introduced it was considered very controversial as some considered it debasing. However, he was able to convince many that individuals make choices of investing in human capital based on rational benefits and cost that include a return on investment as well as a cultural aspect. Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing the skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. ...
His research included the impact of positive and negative habits such as punctuality and alcoholism on human capital. He explored the different rates of return for different people and the resulting macroeconomic implications. He also distinguished between general to specific education and their influence on job-lock and promotions.
Families Becker’s research on human social interactions has had many implications for the family such as for the marriage market, divorce, fertility, and social security. Becker argued that such decisions are made in a marginal-cost and marginal-benefit framework. For example, he concluded that wealthier couples have higher cost to divorce and thus a lower divorce rate. The family, although recognized as fundamental from Adam Smith on, received little systematic treatment in economics before the 1950s. ...
A major focus of Becker’s research was the impact of higher real wages in increasing the value of time and therefore the cost of home production such as childrearing. As women increase investment in human capital and enter the work force the opportunity cost of childcare rises. Additionally, the increased rate of return to education raises the desire to provide children with formal and costly education. Coupled together, the impact is to lower fertility rates.
A more controversial issue was Becker’s conclusion that parents often act altruistically towards selfish children by highly investing in a child in an effort to indirectly save for old age. Becker believed that the rate of return from investing in children was often greater than normal retirement savings. However, parents can not know for sure that the child will take care of them. Since they cannot legally bind a child to care for them they often resort to manipulation through instilling a sense of “guilt, obligation, duty and filial love that indirectly, but still very effectively... commits children to helping them out.” Becker even went so far as to say that social security can cause families to be less interdependent by removing the motivation of parents to use altruistic behaviors in incenting their children to care for them.
Equally controversial was an article by Gary Becker and Jose Elias on ‘Introducing Incentives in the market for Live and Cadaveric Organ donations’ that claimed that a free market could help solve the problem of a scarcity in organ transplants. Their economic modelling was so precise that they were able to calculate the most appropriate price tag for human kidneys ($15,000) and human livers.($32,000). This particular market would be sourced from among the poor of the developing world.
See also Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting the culture or language of one nation in another. ...
The family, although recognized as fundamental from Adam Smith on, received little systematic treatment in economics before the 1950s. ...
Consumers often gain utility not directly from the goods that they purchase, but instead they transform the goods by a household production function into something that they value. ...
Social capital is a core concept in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, and sociology, defined as the advantage created by a persons location in a structure of relationships. ...
This is an alphabetical list of notable economists. ...
Selected works - Gary S. Becker (1957, 1971, 2nd ed.). The Economics of Discrimination. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-04115-8. UCP descr
- Gary S. Becker (1964, 1993, 3rd ed.). Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education.. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-04120-9. (UCP descr)
- Gary S. Becker (1965) “A Theory of the Allocation of Time,” Economic ]ournal 75 (299), pp. 493-517.
- Gary Becker (1968). "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach". The Journal of Political Economy 76: 169-217.
- Gary S. Becker (1981, 1991, Enlarged ed.). A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-90698-5. (HUP descr.)
- Gary S. Becker (1992). "The Economic Way of Looking at Life" (Nobel Prize Lecture).
- Becker, Gary S. (1996). Accounting for Tastes. Part I: Personal Capital; Part II: Social Capital. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-54357-2. (HUP descr)
- Gary Becker and H. Gregg Lewis (1973). "On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children". The Journal of Political Economy 81: S279-S288.
- Gary S. Becker and Gilbert Ghez (1975). The Allocation of Time and Goods Over the Life Cycle. New York, Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-87014-514-2.
- Gary Becker and George J. Stigler (1977). "De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum". The American Economic Review 67: 76-90.
- Gary Becker and Kevin M. Murphy (1988). "A Theory of Rational Addiction". The Journal of Political Economy 96: 675-700.
Social capital is a core concept in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, and sociology, defined as the advantage created by a persons location in a structure of relationships. ...
George Joseph Stigler (1911 - 1991) was a U.S. economist. ...
Economist Kevin M. Murphy is a professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. ...
References
External links | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: List of Laureates | Milton Friedman (1976) • Bertil Ohlin / James Meade (1977) • Herbert Simon (1978) • Theodore Schultz / Arthur Lewis (1979) • Lawrence Klein (1980) • James Tobin (1981) • George Stigler (1982) • Gérard Debreu (1983) • Richard Stone (1984) • Franco Modigliani (1985) • James M. Buchanan (1986) • Robert Solow (1987) • Maurice Allais (1988) • Trygve Haavelmo (1989) • Harry Markowitz / Merton Miller / William Forsyth Sharpe (1990) • Ronald Coase (1991) • Gary Becker (1992) • Robert Fogel / Douglass North (1993) • John Harsanyi / John Forbes Nash / Reinhard Selten (1994) • Robert Lucas, Jr. (1995) • James Mirrlees / William Vickrey (1996) • Robert C. Merton / Myron Scholes (1997) • Amartya Sen (1998) • Robert Mundell (1999) • James Heckman / Daniel McFadden (2000) For other persons named Adam Smith, see Adam Smith (disambiguation). ...
Alfred Marshall Alfred Marshall (July 26, 1842–July 13, 1924), born in Bermondsey, London, England, became one of the most influential economists of his time. ...
EconTalk is a weekly podcast hosted by professor Russell Roberts at George Mason University. ...
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel[1] (Swedish: Sveriges Riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, or more acurately the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, is a prize awarded each year for outstanding intellectual...
Winners of the Nobel Prize are scientists, writers and peacemakers who have been awarded in their field of endeavour, and who are known collectively as either Nobel laureates or Nobel Prize winners. ...
Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ...
Bertil Ohlin (pronounced ) (April 23, 1899 – August 3, 1979), was a Swedish economist and winner of the 1977 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. ...
James Edward Meade (June 23, 1907, Swanage, Dorset – December 22, 1995, Cambridge) was an English economist and winner of the 1977 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel jointly with the Norwegian Bertil Ohlin for their Pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and...
Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was an American political scientist whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, economics, management, and philosophy of science and a professor, most notably, at Carnegie Mellon University. ...
Theodore William Schultz (April 30, 1902 – February 26, 1998) was the 1979 winner (jointly with William Arthur Lewis) of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. ...
Sir William Arthur Lewis (January 23, 1915 – June 15, 1991) was a British economist well known for his contributions in the field of economic development. ...
Lawrence Robert Klein (born September 14, 1920) is an American economist. ...
For the convicted Republican political operative, see James Tobin (political operative). ...
George Joseph Stigler (1911 - 1991) was a U.S. economist. ...
Gerard Debreu was a naturalized US citizen from France Gerard Debreu (July 4, 1921 – December 31, 2004) was a French-born economist and mathematician (In July 1975, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States). ...
Sir John Richard Nicholas Stone (August 30, 1913 – December 6, 1991) was an eminent British economist who in 1984 received the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for developing an accounting model that could be used to track economic activities on a national and...
Franco Modigliani (June 18, 1918 – September 25, 2003) was an Italian-American economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1985. ...
For other persons named James Buchanan, see James Buchanan (disambiguation). ...
Robert Merton Bob Solow (born August 23, 1924) is an American economist particularly known for his work on the theory of economic growth. ...
Maurice Allais (born May 31, 1911) was the 1988 winner of The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources. ...
Trygve Magnus Haavelmo (13 December 1911 – 26 July 1999), born in Skedsmo, Norway, was an influential economist with main research interests centered on the fields of econometrics and economics theory. ...
Harry Max Markowitz (born August 24, 1927) is an influential economist at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego. ...
Merton Howard Miller (May 16, 1923 – June 3, 2000) won the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1990, along with Harry Markowitz and William Sharpe. ...
William Forsyth Sharpe (born June 16, 1934) is Professor of Finance, Emeritus at Stanford Universitys Graduate School of Business and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economics. ...
Ronald Harry Coase (b. ...
Robert William Fogel (born July 1, 1926) is an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. ...
Douglass Cecil North (born November 5, 1920) is co-recipient of the 1993 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. ...
John Charles Harsanyi (Hungarian: Harsányi János) (born May 29, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary; died August 9, 2000 in Berkeley, California, United States) was a Hungarian- Australian-American economist and Nobel Laureate. ...
John Forbes Nash, Jr. ...
Reinhard Selten (born October 5, 1930) is a German economist. ...
Robert Emerson Lucas, Jr. ...
James Alexander Mirrlees (born July 5, 1936, Minnigaff, Scotland) is a Scottish economist and winner of the 1996 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. ...
William Spencer Vickrey (June 21, 1914, Victoria, British Columbia - October 11, 1996, New York State) was a Columbia University professor, who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics just three days before he died. ...
Robert C. Merton (born July 31, 1944), a leading scholar in the field of finance, was one of three men who, in the early 1970s, developed the mathematics of the stock options markets. ...
Myron S. Scholes (born July 1, 1941) is one of the authors of the famous Black-Scholes equation. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Robert Alexander Mundell C.C. (born October 24, 1932) is a professor of economics at Columbia University. ...
James Heckman (born April 19, 1944) is an economist at the University of Chicago. ...
Daniel L. McFadden (born July 29, 1937) is an econometrician who won (jointly with James Heckman) the 2000 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice. He is currently the E. Morris Cox Professor of...
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