Who are the world’s 5 most famous economists at the moment? As in, which economists are recognized by a majority of the profession as being the “cream of the crop”?
I’m expecting that this list will mostly be economists not in the Austrian tradition, as I can’t think of any living Austrians as famous as Hayek was among the mainstream.
There is data found here regarding which are cited the most: http://ideas.repec.org/coupe.html
I would say Krugman, Stiglitz, Bernanke, Bagwati, and Roubini would be in a lot of “mainstream” top 5s.
Hmm. As I expected. I was going to say Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Gregory Mankiw, Robert Barro, Amartya Sen.
As most have a specialized field, it’s difficult to identify one economist as the overall best. For instance, Paul Krugman is considered the king of international economics, but might be seen as too extreme in terms of his keynesian policies. But you’re curious about the most popular, so in that respect the answer is easy: Paul Krugman.
Really.. I’ve always thought Smith was one of the top. Or Marx maybe? I don’t know what I know anymore..
I think the question was about the living economists.
The only non-austrian I respect is Thomas Sowell.
Huerta de Soto is the greatest if you consider Austrians.
I think the Austrain moment will come sooner than we think. Ron Paul is also one of the greatest economists, and has spooked Bernanke into going on tour with town hall meetings. Before Paul, hardly anyone knew or cared what the Fed was or who the chariman was or what he did.
I agree, Sowell is good. I like Walter Williams too.
That would suggest you haven’t heard of many non-Austrians. Otherwise, what makes Sowell so unique? I happen to be a fan of his. But there are lots of people with essentially the same free-market views.
I would disagree about Krugman and Stiglitz. Though a lot of people will cite Krugman - outside of serious publications, anyways - he hasn’t really written anything serious in years.
It’s almost the opposite with Stiglitz though. He writes about as much as anyother economist in the world, but it’s usually of no real relevance or interest to much people other than himself.
Rooster: Examples other than Sowell??
A lot of economists from the Univ. of Chicago and Stanford Univ. have similar views. Check out the Hoover Institution.
Also, many at GMU, though not Austrians, are probably even better than Sowell as far as free markets go - not that Thomas Sowell doesn’t deserve all the appreciation he gets from the freedom movement, indeed, he deserves more.
Krugman has something in the latest edition of the American Economic Review.
True, Russ Roberts and Don Boudreaux at GMU, to take just two examples, are also great popularizers of free market economics. Hard to see why you would respect Sowell but not them. Actually I think they are much more consistent libertarians, when Sowell talks about foreign policy he’s a bit of a neocon wacko.
If you take into account Sowell’s recommendations on foreign policy, they basically negate any free-market credibility he has. America would be involved in a lot more wars if Sowell had his way, which would in turn lead to a bigger military-industrial complex and undermine liberty.
Well I tend to agree with your conclusion, and I would understand if people disliked him for those views, but his books should be evaluated on his own merits. After all, isn’t economics value-free? Asking what would happen “if Sowell had his way” is not relevant in evaluating his explanations on economics. What if you discovered some distasteful views of an author you were already persuaded by?
trivia : Walter Block has gone so far as to say that Sowell is deserving of the Nobel prize in economics
Sowell has done lots of good stuff in economics. But Sowell doesn’t understand the economics of war. Which is why he doesn’t understand that his foreign policy views seriously undermine the rest of his free-market work.
I don’t see why you should let one policy mistake get in the way of his years of excellent presence in the free market movement though.
Now, I’m going to say something that some might not agree with or is a bit too blunt, but I’ll say it anyways. Sowell is indispensible to the liberty movement not only because he’s such a good economist, but because he’s a good, free market, black economist. Some of you may say that you don’t see why it should be important, and I agree, it shouldn’t. But in a country where it’s at least portrayed that a majority of libertarians are white, men; having a member of the minority group of the country on your side does wonders for our credibility.
At Mises U, Hoppe suggested that if you read and understood the first chapter of Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, you are far more knowledgeable than any of those famous economists.