1969:
Ragnar Frisch (Norway) and Jan Tinbergen (Netherlands) - developed econometrics
1970:
Paul Samuelson (MIT) - wrote Economics An Introductory Analysis
1971:
Simon Kuznets (Harvard) - interpretation of economic growth; developed GNP;
empiricist
1972:
Sir John Hicks (Britain) and Kenneth Arrow (Harvard) - equilibrium theory and
welfare theory
1973:
Wassily Leontief (Harvard) - input/output technique
1974:
Gunnar Myrdal (Sweden) and Friedrich von Hayek (Britain) - economic
fluctuations; von Hayek
wrote The Road to Serfdom;
Myrdal wrote Asian Drama An Inquiry Into the Poverty of Nations
1975:
Leonid Kantorovich (USSR) and Tjalling Koopmans
(Yale) - optimum allocation of resources;
linear programming
1976:
Milton Friedman (Chicago) - wrote Capitalism and Freedom, Dollars and Deficit;
stabilization
policy; proponent of free
market forces
1977:
Bertil Ohlin (Sweden) and James Meade (Britain) -
international trade; helped establish GATT and IMF
1978:
Herbert Simon (Carnegie-Mellon) - decision-making processes in businesses;
cognitive psychology
1979:
Theodore Schultz (Chicago) and Sir Arthur Lewis (Princeton) - economic
development in
developing nations
1980:
Lawrence Klein (Penn) - used econometric models; wrote The Keynesian
Revolution; founded
Project Link
1981:
James Tobin (Yale) - related taxes to consumer spending; risk analysis; q
factor between market
value and replacement cost
of assets; advisor to Kennedy and McGovern
1982:
George Stigler (Chicago) - causes and effects of public regulation; studies of
industrial structures
1983:
Gerard Debreu (Berkeley) - reformulation of theory of general equilibrium
1984:
Sir Richard Stone (Britain) - systems of national accounts; improved empirical
economic analysis
1985:
Franco Modigliani (MIT) - analysis of financial markets; life-cycle hypothesis;
corporate finance
theories developed with
Merton Miller
1986:
James Buchanan Jr (Center for Study of Public Choice) - contractual and
constitutional bases for
theory of decision-making
1987:
Robert Solow (MIT) - related economic growth to technological advances; called
"economist's
economist" by New York
Times
1988:
Maurice Alais (France) - theory of markets and
utilization of resources
1989:
Trygve Haavelmo (Norway) - probability theory
foundations of econometrics
1990:
Harry Markowitz (Baruch College of CCNY) Portfolio Theory, William Sharpe
(Stanford) Capital
Asset Pricing Model, Merton
Miller (Chicago) Miller-Modigliani Theory, for corporate finance theories
1991:
Ronald Coase (Chicago) - role of firms in economy and social costs of industry;
wrote The Theory
of the Firm and The Problem
of Social Cost
1992:
Gary Becker (Chicago) - extended domain of economic theory to crime, family
life, and racism;
wrote Human Capital
1993:
Robert Fogel (Chicago) and Douglass North (Washington), economic historians;
applied quarantine
methods to historical
puzzles; Fogel wrote Time on the Cross, saying slavery was an efficient
economic
system
1994:
John Nash (Princeton), John Harsanyi (Berkeley), and
Reinhard Selten (Germany); game theory
1995:
Robert Lucas Jr (Chicago) - macroeconomic research challenging Keynesian belief
that government
can fine-tune economy
1996:
James Mirrlees (Britain) and William Vickrey (Columbia) - theory of incentives; Vickrey developed
practical applications
including time-based pricing and optimal income tax; Mirrlees
worked on
asymmetrically distributed
information
1997:
Robert Merton (US) and Myron Scholes (Can-US) - developed formula for derivates
to assess risk
1998:
Amartya Sen (India) - welfare economics
1999:
Robert Mundell (Columbia, born Canada); idea of optimum currency areas led to
euro; relationship
of exchange rates to
monetary policy
2000:
James Heckman (US) and Daniel McFadden (US) - selective samples and discrete
choice
2001:
George Akerlof (US), Michael Spence (US), and Joseph
Stiglitz (US) - markets with asymmetric information
2002:
Daniel Kahneman (Israel/US) and Vernon Smith (US) - integrating psychology and
lab experiments into economics
2003:
Robert Engle (US) and Clive Granger (UK) - economic time series
2004:
Finn Kydland (Norway) and Edward Prescott (US) -
business cycles
2005:
Robert Aumann (US/Israel) and Thomas Schelling (US) -
game theory
2006:
Edmund Phelps (US) - intertemporal trade-offs
2007:
Leonid Hurwicz (Poland/US), Eric Maskin
(US), and Roger Myerson (US) - mechanism design theory
2008:
Paul Krugman (US) - trade patterns
2009:
Elinor Ostrom (US) and Oliver Williamson (US) - economic governance
2010:
Peter Diamond (US), Dale Mortensen (US), and Christopher Pissarides
(Cyprus) - markets with search frictions
2011:
Thomas Sargent (US) and Christopher Sims (US) - empirical research on cause and
effect
2012:
Alvin Roth (US) and Lloyd Shapley (US) - stable allocations
2013:
Eugene Fama (US), Lars Peter Hansen (US), and Robert
Shiller (US) - empirical analysis of asset prices
2014:
Jean Tirole (France) - market power and regulation
2015:
Angus Deaton (UK/US) - consumption, poverty, and welfare
2016:
Oliver Hart (UK/US) and Bengt Holmstrom (Finland) - contract theory
Jack
Barbash (US, 1900s) - labor economist; helped create
AFL-CIO
John
Commons (US, 1800s-1900s) - wrote Legal Foundations of Capitalism and History
of Labor in US
Irving
Fisher (US, 1800s-1900s) - developed monetary theory and eclectic theory of
capital
John
Kenneth Galbraith (Canada-US, 1900s) - wrote The Affluent Society, American
Capitalism, A Tenured
Professor; served as
ambassador to India
Henry
George (US, 1800s) - led single-tax movement; wrote Progress and Poverty
John
Maynard Keynes (Britain, 1900s) - advocate of deficit spending; wrote Indian
Currency and Finance,
The Economic Consequences of
the Peace (opposing Versailles), and The General Theory of Employment
Interest and Money
James
Laughlin (US, 1800s-1900s) - helped establish Federal Reserve
Thomas
Malthus (Britain, 1700s-1800s) - wrote Essay on the Principle of Population
(population increases
faster than food supply)
Vilfredo
Pareto (Italy, 1800s-1900s) - wrote Mind and Society; theory of a superior
elite class
Francois
Quesnay (France, 1700s) - presented the "natural law" of economics in
his Economic Table; said
only agriculture can
increase wealth
David
Ricardo (Britain, 1700s-1800s) - wrote Principles of Political Economy and
Taxation; theory of rent,
labor theory of value, iron
law of wages, and theory of distribution of wealth
Jean
Baptiste Say (French) - Say's Law of Markets says that supply creates its own
demand
Hjalmar
Schacht (Germany, 1900s) - president of Reichsbank under Nazis; acquitted at Nurenburg
Joseph
Schumpeter (Czech-US, 1900s) - "creative destruction" of
entrepreneurs, leading to socialism
Adam
Smith (Britain, 1700s) - advocated laissez-faire economy and free trade;
"invisible hand"; wrote
Theory of Moral Sentiments
and An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations
William
Sumner (US, 1800s-1990s) - advocated laissez-faire and Social Darwinism
Frank
Taussig (US, 1800s-1900s)
Thorstein
Veblen (US, 1800s-1900s) - wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class