Robert Lucas Jr.

Robert Lucas Jr.
Robert Lucas Jr.
	Lucas in 1996
Born	Robert Emerson Lucas Jr.; September 15, 1937; Yakima, Washington, U.S.
Died	May 15, 2023 (aged 85); Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education	University of Chicago (BA, PhD)
Spouses	Rita Cohen (m. 1959, divorced); Nancy Stokey;
Children	2
Academic career
Institution	Carnegie Mellon University; University of Chicago;
Field	Macroeconomics
School or; tradition	New classical macroeconomics
Doctoral; advisor	H. Gregg Lewis; Dale W. Jorgenson;
Doctoral; students	Marcel Boyer [fr]; Costas Azariadis; Jean-Pierre Danthine; Boyan Jovanovic; Paul Romer; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg; Benjamin Moll;
Contributions	Rational expectations; Lucas critique;
Awards	Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1995)
	Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Robert Emerson Lucas Jr. (September 15, 1937 – May 15, 2023) was an American economist at the University of Chicago. Widely regarded as the central figure in the development of the new classical approach to macroeconomics,^[1] he received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1995 "for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy".^[2]^[3] He was characterized by N. Gregory Mankiw as "the most influential macroeconomist of the last quarter of the 20th century".^[4] In 2020, he ranked as the 10th most cited economist in the world.^[5]

Early life and education[edit]

Lucas was born on September 15, 1937, in Yakima, Washington, as the eldest child of Robert Emerson Lucas and Jane Templeton Lucas.^[6] His parents ran an ice creamery in Yakima. After the business failed during the Great Depression, the family moved to Seattle. His mother worked as a fashion designer and his father worked at shipbuilding yard and later worked as a welder with a refrigeration company.^[7]

Lucas received his BA in History in 1959 from the University of Chicago. Lucas attended the University of California, Berkeley, as a first-year graduate student, but he left Berkeley due to financial reasons and returned to Chicago in 1960, where he earned a PhD in Economics in 1964.^[8] His dissertation, Substitution Between Labor and Capital in U.S. Manufacturing: 1929–1958, was written under the supervision of H. Gregg Lewis and Dale Jorgenson.^[9] Lucas studied economics for his PhD on "quasi-Marxist" grounds. He believed that economics was the true driver of history, and so he planned to immerse himself fully in economics and then return to the history department.^[10]

Career[edit]

Following his graduation, Lucas taught at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (now Tepper School of Business) at Carnegie Mellon University until 1975, when he returned to the University of Chicago.^[11]

Lucas was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980,^[12] a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Academy of Sciences in 1981,^[13]^[14] and the American Philosophical Society in 1997.^[15] A collection of his papers is housed at the Rubenstein Library at Duke University.^[16]

Lucas was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1995. The citation noted that the prize was "for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy".^[17]

Research contributions[edit]

Rational expectations[edit]

Lucas is well known for his investigations into the implications of rational expectations in macroeconomic theory.^[6] Lucas (1972) incorporated the idea of rational expectations into a dynamic macroeconomic models. The agents in Lucas's model are rational: based on the available information, they form expectations about future prices and quantities, and based on these expectations they act to maximize their expected lifetime utility. He also provided sound theoretical foundations to Milton Friedman and Edmund Phelps's view of the long-run neutrality of money, and provided an explanation for the then observed correlation between output and inflation, depicted by the Phillips curve, while illustrating that the existence of this empirical relationship did not yield a possibility of a policy trade off.^[18]

Lucas critique[edit]

In 1976, Lucas challenged the foundations of macroeconomic theory (previously dominated by the Keynesian economics approach),^[19] arguing that a macroeconomic model should be built as an aggregated version of microeconomic models while noting that aggregation in the theoretical sense may not be possible within a given model. He formulated the "Lucas critique" of economic policymaking, which holds that relationships that appear to hold in the economy, such as an apparent relationship between inflation and unemployment, could change in response to changes in economic policy. The reformulation influenced the development of new classical macroeconomics and the drive towards microeconomic foundations for macroeconomic theory.^[18]^[20]

Other contributions[edit]

Lucas developed a theory of supply that suggests people can be tricked by unsystematic monetary policy; the Uzawa–Lucas model (with Hirofumi Uzawa) of human capital accumulation; and the "Lucas paradox", which considers why more capital does not flow from developed countries to developing countries. Lucas (1988) is a seminal contribution in the economic development and growth literature.^[21] Lucas and Paul Romer heralded the birth of endogenous growth theory and the resurgence of research on economic growth in the late 1980s and the 1990s.^[22]^[23]

Lucas also contributed foundational contributions to behavioral economics, and provided the intellectual foundation for the understanding of deviations from the law of one price based on the irrationality of investors.^[18]^[24]

In 2003, he stated, about five years before the Great Recession, that the "central problem of depression-prevention has been solved, for all practical purposes, and has in fact been solved for many decades."^[25]

Lucas also proposed the Lucas Wedge which tries to show how much higher GDP would be in the presence of proper policy.^[26]

Personal life[edit]

Lucas married an undergraduate classmate from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Rita Cohen. The couple divorced in the 1980s. The divorce stipulation had a clause that entitled Cohen to half of his Nobel prize winnings if the prize were to be awarded before October 31, 1995, which ended up being the case.^[7]

After his divorce from Cohen, Lucas married Nancy Stokey.^[6] The couple collaborated on papers on growth theory, public finance, and monetary theory. Lucas had two sons with Cohen: Stephen (born 1960) and Joseph (born 1966).^[8]

Lucas died in Chicago on May 15, 2023, at the age of 85.^[6]^[27]

Bibliography[edit]

Lucas, Robert (1972). "Expectations and the Neutrality of Money". Journal of Economic Theory. 4 (2): 103–24. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.592.6178. doi:10.1016/0022-0531(72)90142-1.
Lucas, Robert (1976). "Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique". Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy. 1: 19–46. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.726.1610. doi:10.1016/S0167-2231(76)80003-6.
Lucas, Robert (1988). "On the Mechanics of Economic Development". Journal of Monetary Economics. 22 (1): 3–42. doi:10.1016/0304-3932(88)90168-7. S2CID 154875771.
Lucas, Robert (1990). "Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries". American Economic Review. 80 (2): 92–96. JSTOR 2006549.
Lucas, Robert (1981). Studies in Business-Cycle Theory. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-62044-4.
Lucas, Robert (1995). "Monetary Neutrality". Prize Lecture, 1995 Nobel Prize in Economics, December 7, 1995,
Stokey, Nancy; Robert Lucas; and Edward Prescott (1989), Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-75096-9.
Lucas, Robert E. Jr. (2012). "The History and Future of Economic Growth". In Miniter, Brendan (ed.). The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs. New York: Crown Business. pp. 27–41. ISBN 978-0-307-98614-6.
Lucas, Robert E. Jr.; Moll, Benjamin (October 2011). "Knowledge Growth and the Allocation of Time". Working Paper Series no. 17495. National Bureau of Economic Research. doi:10.3386/w17495. Retrieved April 9, 2019. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
- Lucas, Robert E. Jr.; Moll, Benjamin (February 2014). "Knowledge Growth and the Allocation of Time". Journal of Political Economy. 122 (1): 1–51. doi:10.1086/674363. S2CID 6319313.

Notes[edit]

^ Snowdon, Brian; Vane, Howard R. (2005). Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origin, Development and Current State. Cheltenham: Edgar Elgar. pp. 220–223. ISBN 978-1-84542-208-0.
^ "Robert E. Lucas, Jr. | American economist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
^ Mankiw, N. Gregory (September 21, 2009). "Back In Demand". Wall Street Journal.
^ "Top 10% Authors, as of July 2020". IDEAS/RePEc. Archived by the Wayback Machine: Research Papers in Economics. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2023.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Roberts, Sam (May 17, 2023). "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel-Winning Conservative Economist, Dies at 85". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Langer, Emily (May 19, 2023). "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel Prize–winning economist, dies at 85". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Lucas, Robert E. Frängsmyr, Tore (ed.). "Robert E. Lucas Jr. – Biographical". Stockholm: Nobel Foundation. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
^ Andrada, Alexandre F. S. (May–August 2017). "Understanding Robert Lucas (1967–1981): His Influence and Influences". EconomiA. 18 (2): 212–228. doi:10.1016/j.econ.2016.09.001. hdl:10419/179646. SSRN 2515932.
^ Roberts, Russ (February 5, 2007). Bob Lucas on Growth, Poverty and Business Cycles. EconTalk. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved May 18, 2023.
^ Pressman, Steven (1999). Fifty Major Economists. London: Routledge. pp. 193–197. ISBN 9780415134811.
^ "Robert Emerson Lucas". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
^ "Robert E. Lucas Jr". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved May 18, 2023.
^ "Robert E. Lucas, Jr". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
^ "APS Member History". American Philosophical Society. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
^ "Robert E. Lucas papers, 1960–2011 and undated". David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Retrieved May 18, 2023.
^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Svensson, Lars E. O. (1996). "The Scientific Contributions of Robert E. Lucas, Jr". The Scandinavian Journal of Economics. 98 (1): 1–10. doi:10.2307/3440576. ISSN 0347-0520. JSTOR 3440576.
^ Lucas, Robert (1976). "Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique" (PDF). In Brunner, K.; Meltzer, A. (eds.). The Phillips Curve and Labor Markets. Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy. Vol. 1. New York: American Elsevier. pp. 19–46. ISBN 0-444-11007-0. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 5, 2021.
^ "New Classical Macroeconomics: Robert Lucas". policonomics.com. October 8, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
^ Blanchard, Olivier Jean; Fischer, Stanley (1989). "The Lucas Model". Lectures on Macroeconomics. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 356–360 [p. 358]. ISBN 978-0-262-02283-5.
^ "Paul Romer: Ideas, Nonrivalry, and Endogenous Growth" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on May 3, 2020.
^ Barseghyan, Levon (2016), "Lucas, Robert (Born 1937)", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 1–6, doi:10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2728-1, ISBN 978-1-349-95121-5, retrieved May 20, 2023
^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
^ "Fighting Off Depression". The New York Times. January 4, 2009.
^ "What Is a Lucas Wedge?". Investopedia. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
^ Lee, Tori; Witynski, Max (May 16, 2023). "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel laureate and pioneering economist, 1937–2023". University of Chicago. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

References[edit]

Galbács, Peter (2015). The Theory of New Classical Macroeconomics: A Positive Critique. Contributions to Economics. Heidelberg/New York/Dordrecht/London: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17578-2. ISBN 978-3-319-17578-2.
Kasper, Sherryl (2002). "Robert E. Lucas, Jr and new classical economics". The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: A Case Study of Its Pioneers. Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781843765608.

External links[edit]

Robert E. Lucas Jr.'s website at University of Chicago
Robert Lucas Jr. on Nobelprize.org includes the Prize Lecture on December 7, 1995 Monetary Neutrality
Robert E. Lucas Jr. – Autobiography
Nobel Prize Press Release
IDEAS/RePEc
Interview on Channel 4
Chicago Economics on Trial
"Robert E. Lucas Jr. (1937– )". The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty (2nd ed.). Liberty Fund. 2008.
Interviews with Robert Lucas as part of the Nobel Perspectives project

Awards
Preceded by John C. Harsanyi John F. Nash Jr. Reinhard Selten	Laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 1995	Succeeded by James A. Mirrlees William Vickrey
Academic offices
Preceded by Roger Guesnerie	President of the Econometric Society 1997	Succeeded by Jean Tirole
Preceded by Sherwin Rosen	President of the American Economic Association 2002–2003	Succeeded by Peter Diamond

[1] Snowdon, Brian; Vane, Howard R. (2005). Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origin, Development and Current State. Cheltenham: Edgar Elgar. pp. 220–223. ISBN 978-1-84542-208-0.

[2] "Robert E. Lucas, Jr. | American economist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved August 2, 2017.

[3] "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved October 14, 2008.

[4] Mankiw, N. Gregory (September 21, 2009). "Back In Demand". Wall Street Journal.

[5] "Top 10% Authors, as of July 2020". IDEAS/RePEc. Archived by the Wayback Machine: Research Papers in Economics. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2023.

[Roberts-6] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Roberts, Sam (May 17, 2023). "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel-Winning Conservative Economist, Dies at 85". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2023.

[:0-7] Jump up to: ^a ^b Langer, Emily (May 19, 2023). "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel Prize–winning economist, dies at 85". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 20, 2023.

[Nobel-8] Jump up to: ^a ^b Lucas, Robert E. Frängsmyr, Tore (ed.). "Robert E. Lucas Jr. – Biographical". Stockholm: Nobel Foundation. Retrieved November 16, 2016.

[9] Andrada, Alexandre F. S. (May–August 2017). "Understanding Robert Lucas (1967–1981): His Influence and Influences". EconomiA. 18 (2): 212–228. doi:10.1016/j.econ.2016.09.001. hdl:10419/179646. SSRN 2515932.

[10] Roberts, Russ (February 5, 2007). Bob Lucas on Growth, Poverty and Business Cycles. EconTalk. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

[11] Pressman, Steven (1999). Fifty Major Economists. London: Routledge. pp. 193–197. ISBN 9780415134811.

[12] "Robert Emerson Lucas". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved December 10, 2021.

[13] "Robert E. Lucas Jr". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

[14] "Robert E. Lucas, Jr". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved December 10, 2021.

[15] "APS Member History". American Philosophical Society. Retrieved December 10, 2021.

[16] "Robert E. Lucas papers, 1960–2011 and undated". David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

[17] "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved May 20, 2023.

[:1-18] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Svensson, Lars E. O. (1996). "The Scientific Contributions of Robert E. Lucas, Jr". The Scandinavian Journal of Economics. 98 (1): 1–10. doi:10.2307/3440576. ISSN 0347-0520. JSTOR 3440576.

[Lucas76-19] Lucas, Robert (1976). "Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique" (PDF). In Brunner, K.; Meltzer, A. (eds.). The Phillips Curve and Labor Markets. Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy. Vol. 1. New York: American Elsevier. pp. 19–46. ISBN 0-444-11007-0. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 5, 2021.

[20] "New Classical Macroeconomics: Robert Lucas". policonomics.com. October 8, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2017.

[:2-21] Blanchard, Olivier Jean; Fischer, Stanley (1989). "The Lucas Model". Lectures on Macroeconomics. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 356–360 [p. 358]. ISBN 978-0-262-02283-5.

[22] "Paul Romer: Ideas, Nonrivalry, and Endogenous Growth" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on May 3, 2020.

[23] Barseghyan, Levon (2016), "Lucas, Robert (Born 1937)", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 1–6, doi:10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2728-1, ISBN 978-1-349-95121-5, retrieved May 20, 2023

[24] "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved May 20, 2023.

[25] "Fighting Off Depression". The New York Times. January 4, 2009.

[26] "What Is a Lucas Wedge?". Investopedia. Retrieved May 20, 2023.

[27] Lee, Tori; Witynski, Max (May 16, 2023). "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel laureate and pioneering economist, 1937–2023". University of Chicago. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

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v t e Laureates of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences
1969–1975	1969: Ragnar Frisch / Jan Tinbergen 1970: Paul A. Samuelson 1971: Simon Kuznets 1972: John R. Hicks / Kenneth J. Arrow 1973: Wassily Leontief 1974: Gunnar Myrdal / Friedrich August von Hayek 1975: Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich / Tjalling C. Koopmans
1976–2000	1976: Milton Friedman 1977: Bertil Ohlin / James E. Meade 1978: Herbert A. Simon 1979: Theodore W. Schultz / Sir Arthur Lewis 1980: Lawrence R. Klein 1981: James Tobin 1982: George J. Stigler 1983: Gérard Debreu 1984: Richard Stone 1985: Franco Modigliani 1986: James M. Buchanan Jr. 1987: Robert M. Solow 1988: Maurice Allais 1989: Trygve Haavelmo 1990: Harry M. Markowitz / Merton H. Miller / William F. Sharpe 1991: Ronald H. Coase 1992: Gary S. Becker 1993: Robert W. Fogel / Douglass C. North 1994: John C. Harsanyi / John F. Nash Jr. / Reinhard Selten 1995: Robert E. Lucas Jr. 1996: James A. Mirrlees / William Vickrey 1997: Robert C. Merton / Myron S. Scholes 1998: Amartya Sen 1999: Robert A. Mundell 2000: James J. Heckman / Daniel L. McFadden
2001–present	2001: George A. Akerlof / A. Michael Spence / Joseph E. Stiglitz 2002: Daniel Kahneman / Vernon L. Smith 2003: Robert F. Engle III / Clive W.J. Granger 2004: Finn E. Kydland / Edward C. Prescott 2005: Robert J. Aumann / Thomas C. Schelling 2006: Edmund S. Phelps 2007: Leonid Hurwicz / Eric S. Maskin / Roger B. Myerson 2008: Paul Krugman 2009: Elinor Ostrom / Oliver E. Williamson 2010: Peter A. Diamond / Dale T. Mortensen / Christopher A. Pissarides 2011: Thomas J. Sargent / Christopher A. Sims 2012: Alvin E. Roth / Lloyd S. Shapley 2013: Eugene F. Fama / Lars Peter Hansen / Robert J. Shiller 2014: Jean Tirole 2015: Angus Deaton 2016: Oliver Hart / Bengt Holmström 2017: Richard H. Thaler 2018: William Nordhaus / Paul Romer 2019: Abhijit Banerjee / Esther Duflo / Michael Kremer 2020: Paul Milgrom / Robert B. Wilson 2021: David Card / Joshua Angrist / Guido Imbens 2022: Ben Bernanke / Douglas Diamond / Philip H. Dybvig 2023: Claudia Goldin

v t e 1995 Nobel Prize laureates
Chemistry	Paul J. Crutzen (Netherlands) Mario J. Molina (Mexico) F. Sherwood Rowland (United States)
Literature (1995)	Seamus Heaney (Ireland)
Peace	Joseph Rotblat (United Kingdom/Poland) Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (Canada)
Physics	Martin Lewis Perl (United States) Frederick Reines (United States)
Physiology or Medicine	Edward B. Lewis (United States) Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Germany) Eric F. Wieschaus (United States)
Economic Sciences	Robert Lucas Jr. (United States)
Nobel Prize recipients 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

v t e Neoclassical economists
William Stanley Jevons Léon Walras Francis Ysidro Edgeworth Alfred Marshall John Bates Clark Irving Fisher
Walrasian economics	Maurice Allais Gérard Debreu Edmond Malinvaud Jacques Drèze Jean-Michel Grandmont Guy Laroque [fr] Jean-Pascal Bénassy Yves Younes
New classical macroeconomics	Robert Barro Axel Leijonhufvud Robert Lucas Jr. Bennett McCallum Patrick Minford Thomas J. Sargent Neil Wallace
Real business cycle school	Robert King Finn E. Kydland John Long Charles Plosser Edward C. Prescott Sérgio Rebelo Alan Stockman

v t e Presidents of the Econometric Society
1931–1950	Irving Fisher (1931–1934) François Divisia (1935) Harold Hotelling (1936–1937) Arthur Bowley (1938–1939) Joseph Schumpeter (1940–1941) Wesley Mitchell (1942–1943) John Maynard Keynes (1944–1945) Jacob Marschak (1946) Jan Tinbergen (1947) Charles Roos (1948) Ragnar Frisch (1949) Tjalling Koopmans (1950)
1951–1975	R. G. D. Allen (1951) Paul Samuelson (1952) René Roy (1953) Wassily Leontief (1954) Richard Stone (1955) Kenneth Arrow (1956) Trygve Haavelmo (1957) James Tobin (1958) Marcel Boiteux (1959) Lawrence Klein (1960) Henri Theil (1961) Franco Modigliani (1962) Edmond Malinvaud (1963) Robert Solow (1964) Michio Morishima (1965) Herman Wold (1966) Hendrik Houthakker (1967) Frank Hahn (1968) Leonid Hurwicz (1969) Jacques Drèze (1970) Gérard Debreu (1971) W. M. Gorman (1972) Roy Radner (1973) Don Patinkin (1974) Zvi Griliches (1975)
1976–2000	Hirofumi Uzawa (1976) Lionel McKenzie (1977) János Kornai (1978) Franklin M. Fisher (1979) J. Denis Sargan (1980) Marc Nerlove (1981) James A. Mirrlees (1982) Herbert Scarf (1983) Amartya K. Sen (1984) Daniel McFadden (1985) Michael Bruno (1986) Dale Jorgenson (1987) Anthony B. Atkinson (1988) Hugo Sonnenschein (1989) Jean-Michel Grandmont [de] (1990) Peter Diamond (1991) Jean-Jacques Laffont (1992) Andreu Mas-Colell (1993) Takashi Negishi (1994) Christopher Sims (1995) Roger Guesnerie (1996) Robert E. Lucas, Jr. (1997) Jean Tirole (1998) Robert B. Wilson (1999) Elhanan Helpman (2000)
2001–present	Avinash Dixit (2001) Guy Laroque [fr] (2002) Eric Maskin (2003) Ariel Rubinstein (2004) Thomas J. Sargent (2005) Richard Blundell (2006) Lars Peter Hansen (2007) Torsten Persson (2008) Roger B. Myerson (2009) John H. Moore (2010) Bengt Holmström (2011) Jean-Charles Rochet [ru] (2012) James J. Heckman (2013) Manuel Arellano (2014) Robert Porter (2015) Eddie Dekel (2016) Drew Fudenberg (2017) Tim Besley (2018) Stephen Morris (2019) Orazio Attanasio (2020) Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg (2021) Guido Tabellini (2022) Rosa Matzkin (2023) Eliana La Ferrara (2024)

v t e Presidents of the American Economic Association
1886–1900	Francis A. Walker (1886) Charles F. Dunbar (1893) John B. Clark (1894) Henry C. Adams (1896) Arthur T. Hadley (1898) Richard T. Ely (1900)
1901–1925	Edwin R. A. Seligman (1902) F. W. Taussig (1904) Jeremiah W. Jenks (1906) Simon N. Patten (1908) Davis R. Dewey (1909) Edmund J. James (1910) Henry W. Farnam (1911) Frank A. Fetter (1912) David Kinley (1913) John H. Gray (1914) Walter F. Willcox (1915) Thomas N. Carver (1916) John R. Commons (1917) Irving Fisher (1918) Henry B. Gardner (1919) Herbert J. Davenport (1920) Jacob H. Hollander (1921) Henry R. Seager (1922) Carl C. Plehn (1923) Wesley C. Mitchell (1924) Allyn A. Young (1925)
1926–1950	Edwin W. Kemmerer (1926) Thomas S. Adams (1927) Fred M. Taylor (1928) Edwin F. Gay (1929) Matthew B. Hammond (1930) Ernest L. Bogart (1931) George E. Barnett (1932) William Z. Ripley (1933) Harry A. Millis (1934) John M. Clark (1935) Alvin S. Johnson (1936) Oliver M. W. Sprague (1937) Alvin Hansen (1938) Jacob Viner (1939) Frederick C. Mills (1940) Sumner Slichter (1941) Edwin G. Nourse (1942) Albert B. Wolfe (1943) Joseph S. Davis (1944) I. Leo Sharfman (1945) Emanuel A. Goldenweiser (1946) Paul Douglas (1947) Joseph Schumpeter (1948) Howard S. Ellis (1949) Frank Knight (1950)
1951–1975	John H. Williams (1951) Harold A. Innis (1952) Calvin B. Hoover (1953) Simon Kuznets (1954) John D. Black (1955) Edwin E. Witte (1956) Morris A. Copeland (1957) George W. Stocking (1958) Arthur F. Burns (1959) Theodore W. Schultz (1960) Paul A. Samuelson (1961) Edward S. Mason (1962) Gottfried Haberler (1963) George J. Stigler (1964) Joseph J. Spengler (1965) Fritz Machlup (1966) Milton Friedman (1967) Kenneth E. Boulding (1968) William J. Fellner (1969) Wassily Leontief (1970) James Tobin (1971) John Kenneth Galbraith (1972) Kenneth J. Arrow (1973) Walter W. Heller (1974) R. Aaron Gordon (1975)
1976–2000	Franco Modigliani (1976) Lawrence R. Klein (1977) Jacob Marschak (1978) Tjalling C. Koopmans (1978) Robert M. Solow (1979) Moses Abramovitz (1980) William J. Baumol (1981) Gardner Ackley (1982) W. Arthur Lewis (1983) Charles L. Schultze (1984) Charles P. Kindleberger (1985) Alice M. Rivlin (1986) Gary S. Becker (1987) Robert Eisner (1988) Joseph A. Pechman (1989) Gérard Debreu (1990) Thomas C. Schelling (1991) William Vickrey (1992) Zvi Griliches (1993) Amartya Sen (1994) Victor R. Fuchs (1995) Anne O. Krueger (1996) Arnold C. Harberger (1997) Robert W. Fogel (1998) D. Gale Johnson (1999) Dale W. Jorgenson (2000)
2001–present	Sherwin Rosen (2001) Robert Lucas Jr. (2002) Peter Diamond (2003) Martin Feldstein (2004) Daniel McFadden (2005) George Akerlof (2006) Thomas J. Sargent (2007) Avinash Dixit (2008) Angus Deaton (2009) Robert Hall (2010) Orley Ashenfelter (2011) Christopher A. Sims (2012) Claudia Goldin (2013) William Nordhaus (2014) Richard Thaler (2015) Robert J. Shiller (2016) Alvin E. Roth (2017) Olivier Blanchard (2018) Ben Bernanke (2019) Janet Yellen (2020) David Card (2021) Christina Romer (2022)