FAMOUS ECONOMISTS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS

Fan Li became one of the prototypes of the late folk deity of Prosperity (Cai Shen). He is ascribed with writing a book known in English as "Golden Rules of Business Success" (simplified Chinese: 经商宝典; traditional Chinese: 經商寶典; pinyin: Jīng Shāng Băo Diăn). This book, most probably of a later origin, remains popular today as its advice is sometimes considered timeless. It includes Twelve Business Principles and Twelve Business Pitfalls describing the art of successful business management.

Fan Li was unusual among tycoons for his view of money. He believed that one who understood money would be willing to abandon it if it became a burden. It is only a means to an end and should not be taken too seriously. Nonetheless, it must be handled and acquired according to principles. Fan Li also urged a somewhat loose construction of these principles, encouraging broad and flexible utilization in various situations.

Fan Li (Chinese: 范蠡; pinyin: Fàn Lǐ)

(496 BC—465 BC)

Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve of the U.S

from 1987 to 2006. He had a successful consulting career before

he was appointed chairman by President Ronald Reagan and

reappointed at successive four year intervals until his retirement, the

second longest tenure in the position. A close friend of Ayn

Rand, he was greatly influenced by her thoughts and concepts. He

adopted her philosophy of individual effort, self-interest and

laissez-faire capitalism. As the Chairman of the Council of

Economic Advisers, during Gerald Ford's presidency, he promoted

Alan Greenspan(March 06, 1926 – Present)

policies that caused the rate of inflation to drop drastically. As the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, his monetary policy was aimed at avoiding the dangers of

inflation and recession. He realized that the rates of growth and the

stock prices would attain a point of saturation and warned the public

about it. He is credited with longest official economic expansion in

American history. He was recognized as one of the most

powerful and influential persons internationally and has been

conferred many awards and honors. However, in 2011 his image took a beating when the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission found many of his policies to be detrimental in

the long run.Benjamin Graham is known to have grown the seeds of investment in America's Wall Street. Graham was a great economist who introduced the present day security analysis. Being the founder of value investing Graham paved the way for a new era of economical strategy setting and planning which were carried forward by his students like Warren Buffett, Mario Gabelli, John Neff, Michael Price, and John Bogle and many others. Graham's books 'Security Analysis' and 'The Intelligent Investor' are regarded as immortal references for financial and economical experts, strategists and enthusiasts. Graham's books have been referred to by many economy proponents to help writing several other similar books. Even to the present day Graham's ideas and economical approaches are religiously followed and retained. According to Warren Buffet Graham was a sheer genius who was much like a father to Warren Buffet and many other disciples to whom he imparted his great knowledge and brilliance in

Benjamin Graham(May 08, 1894 – September

21, 1976)

order for them to make path breaking contributions after him.Friedrich August von Hayek had a great contribution in the field of economics and is mainly popular for his work ‘The Road to Serfdom’ (1944) and for his outstanding work on knowledge in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also an expert of business-cycle theory. He had also worked on psychology (1952), political philosophy (1960) and legal theory (1973-79). Apart from this, his emphasis on impulsive order and his work on intricate systems have been very significant and persuasive amongst the Austrians.

Friedrich von Hayek(08 May 1899 -23 March

1992)

Right after completing his Ph.D. in 1929, Jan Tinbergen joined the Central Bureau of Statistics, which was the Dutch government’s main economic planning and propelling unit. He worked with the organization until 1945, except during 1936-1938. During this period, he was employed by the League of Nations as a business-cycle research expert. In the year 1933, Tinbergen was taken in a professor of development at the Netherlands School of Economics at Rotterdam. Post his stint at the Central Bureau of Statistics, Jan Tinbergen served as the director of the Central Planning Bureau of the Dutch government, serving in this capacity from 1945 to 1955. He then played an advisory role, acting as an advisor to quite a number of governments and international organizations. As an advisor to such prominent bodies, Tinbergen paid special attention to the miseries of underdeveloped countries.

Econometrics is where Tinbergen contributed his most and best. Tinbergen was famous for the ‘Tinbergen Norm’, which is the

Jan Tinbergen(12 April 1903 - 09 June

1994)

principle that states that if the ratio between the minimum and maximum income of a company exceeds a rate of 1:5, then this will not help the company grow from strength to strength. The ‘norm’ implied that a rate such as this would only be against the scope of production.

Tinbergen was also lauded for developing the first national and fully inclusive macroeconomic model. The ‘prototype’ was first developed in 1936 for Netherlands’ economy. The success and the popularity of the model soon saw a modified version of the same being applied to the economies of the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Tinbergen’s approach to economics remains significant to this day, his theory of the monetary policy used by central banks all over the world being most noteworthy.Henry George is remembered as an economist who brought significant changes in politics and eco-political theories. George was a great writer who wrote and formulated several theories and economic and political ideologies. George started a brand new philosophical/economic theory which later came to be known as Georgism which spread the thought that an individual owned everything he/she created but everything natural like land was a thing that was to be shared and possessed equally by all humans. George is also known for his very famous book 'Progress and Poverty', written during 1879. Henry George was a guiding light in the field of politics and economy as he had propounded the land value tax or the system of single tax levy on land. George was an influential politician and a great

Henry George(02 September 1839 - 29

October 1897)

economist who brought outstanding changes like Free Trade, Restriction of Chinese Immigration in United States to generate better employment options, state ownership of natural resources and state regulation on natural monopolies of a state. George was a mass mover and a brilliant public speaker and writer who talked on land access and built political bridges between the public and the state.Joseph Stiglitz has had many vital contributions to economics. His researches and techniques gained him recognition and earned him the many prizes.

Information Asymmetry-A technique called screening was one of Stiglitz’s most famous researches. It was a method used by one economic agent to extract private information from another. This research was carried on with George A. Akerlof and A. Michael Spence and Stiglitz went on to share the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2001 with them.

Efficiency wages: the Shapiro-Stiglitz model-Stiglitz also did research on Efficiency wages, which helped explain why there was unemployment even in equilibrium, why wages are not bid down by job seekers, etc. This was known as the ‘Shapiro-Stiglitz model’ as the answers to these puzzles were proposed Shapiro and Stiglitz together in 1984.

Joseph E. Stiglitz(09 February 1943 –

Present)

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and banker who established the Grameen bank in his country in 1983. The Grameen bank and Yunus were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." As a professor of Economics, he studied the prevailing principles of finance and credit in his country which prevented the poor entrepreneurs from qualifying for bank loans, thus robbing them of the chance to overcome their poverty. He started out by giving personal loans of very small or "micro" amounts to destitute basket weavers so that they could support themselves. The establishment of the Grameen Bank in 1983 was the manifestation of his desire to help poor people. As on today, several other banks modeled on the Grameen Bank business model operate in over 100 countries. Yunus had always been interested in social issues. Even while he was in the U.S, he took an active interest in the welfare of his home country and ran the Bangladesh Information Center to raise support for liberation during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. He became interested in poverty reduction methods after a famine struck Bangladesh in 1974. He is a member of the board of the United Nations Foundation and has won numerous awards for his endeavors.

Muhammad Yunus(28 June 1940 – Present)

Simon Kuznets was considered to be one of the earliest economists to work on the concept of development economics. His findings were significantly based on the economic growth on the distribution of income. He found that in poor countries, the economic growth leads to increased disparity between the rich and the poor while this disparity decreases in developed countries. Kuznets also enumerated the cyclic nature of production and prices over a span of 15-20 years known as Kuznets Cycle.

His discovery of the inverted U-shaped relation between income inequality and economic growth was the most important of all his discoveries that sparked many research programs. The patterns in savings-income characteristics discovered by Kuznets was instrumental in introducing the Life-Cycle-Permanent-Income hypothesis of Modigliani and Friedman and also many other alternatives such as the ‘Relative Income Hypothesis’.

Simon Kuznets(30 April 1901 - 08 July

1985)

Renowned post Keynesian economist and Nobel Laureate William Spencer Vickrey has is a name to reckon with in the field of economics. A professor by profession, Vickrey had a strong concern for social problems and this was often reflected in his work. He indulged into extensive research in the domains of public utilities, transportation, congestion pricing, urban problems. Being a Quaker, he chose to be a conscientious objector during World War II, and volunteered to restyle the tax systems for Puerto Rico and Japan. His Ph.D. thesis "Agenda for Progressive Taxation" serves as a sort of classic for economics even today. William

William Vickrey(21 June 1914 - 11 October

1996)

Vickrey studied "asymmetric information", where the buyer and seller have unequal information about a transaction. This theory is now popularly known as the "Vickrey Auction". Vickrey was far from being the stifling academician. He was more practical and insightful, he roller-skated between buildings on the Columbia University and he would pretend to fall asleep during college lectures and interrupt to ask the most intelligent questions.Wassily Leontief took avid interest in research. His works had great influence not only on the policies, but also on the studies of his contemporaries and successors. Through his input–output method, he contributed extensively to enrich the ‘General Equilibrium’ theory.

The ‘Leontief Paradox’, which developed out of his works and influenced international trade, is a classic example of his contributions to other areas of economics. It corrected a long held belief and proved to the country that though U.S. has the highest capita, per worker has a lower capital/ labour ratio in exports than in imports. The Leontief Paradox corrected the Holsheckner–Ohlin theory using the application of mathematics and statistics, a method that Leontief advocated and propagated.

One of Leontief’s standing influences on economic studies was his insistence on the usage of solid raw data for developing theories. He opposed the practice of many economists resorting to assumptions, which were not backed by any sort of empirical data. Thereunto Leontief played a

Wassily Leontief(05 August 1905 - 05

February 1999)

great hand in not only making all the data accessible for research, but also developing a culture that made the use of empirical data indispensable to economic studies.

Indeed, one would realize the extent to which Leontief’s studies have come to be a part of our life when they come to know that it is his methods and findings that forms a basis for Google’s now – indispensable Page Rank System!A Nobel Prize winner in economic science and a notable personality, Sir Clive Granger will be best remembered as someone who completely transformed the concepts of macroeconomics. He developed techniques to analyze time series data with common trends and penned some groundbreaking books on time series analysis and forecasting, applied statistics and statistical theory. His writings include all the major developments in economics, which occurred during his lifetime. The world owes him for developing some of the most exciting ideas in economic and financial information. His research on the aspects of forecasting had such a lasting and deep influence on economists, so much so that it has become virtually impossible to work on time series economics without using his methods or without being influenced by his concepts. Many financial organisations in England who are into forecasting and monitoring the U.K economy have heavily used Clive Granger's ideas and concepts. These concepts have been propagated by his students and passed over to recent generations of economists.

Sir Clive William John Granger

(04 September 1934 - 27 May 2009)

Sir John Richard Nicholas (Dick) Stone was an outstanding figure in postwar British applied econometrics. He was one of the pioneering architects of national income accounting and was amongst the first contemporary economists of his generation to distinctively blend theory and application in his approach to economic analysis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his significant contributions to the empirical analysis of consumer behavior. His distinctive contribution was however to integrate national income into the double book-keeping format. This technique has been universally accepted as the best way to measure national income. Nowadays, he is often referred to as 'the father of national income accounting'. A noble prize winner, Sir Richard Stone's "Growth Project" created a remarkable macroeconomic model of the British economy. His tenure at the Department of Applied Economics, Cambridge, was instrumental in turning the institute into the best center for applied economics and became a hive attracting top notch economists from around the world.

Sir Richard Stone(30 August 1913 - 06

December 1991)

Ragnar Frisch penned numerous essays and articles. They are‘Sur un problème d'économie pure’ (On a problem in pure economics) (1926), ‘The Relationship Between Primary Investment and Reinvestment’ (1927), ‘Correlation and Scatter in Statistical Variables’ (1929), ‘Statics and Dynamics In Economic Theory’ (1929) reprinted in 1978, ‘New Methods of Measuring Marginal Utility’ (1932), ‘Statistical Confluence Analysis by Means of Complete Regression Systems’ (1934), ‘The Occurrence Test’ (1952), ‘Planning

Ragnar Frisch(03 March 1895 - 31

January 1973)

for India: Selected Explorations in Methodology’ (1960), ‘Theory of Production’ (1965), ‘Maxima and Minima: Theory and Economic Applications’ (1966), ‘Econometrics In The World Of Today’ (1970), ‘Cooperation Between Politicians And Econometricians On The Formalization Of Political Preferences’ (1971), ‘On a Problem in Pure Economics’ (1971), ‘Economic Planning Studies’ (1975) and ‘Partial Time Regressions as Compared with Individual Trends’ (1933) co-written with Frederick V. Waugh.A renowned French philosopher, social activist and religious mystic, Simone Weil is recognized for her strong social commitments and extensive analysis of various attributes of the modern civilization. To put it in other words, Simone Weil was an incredible and outstanding intellectual persona identified for her intelligence, empathy for the working class and strong religious belief in Christ, despite the fact that she was a Jew. Although born and raised in an affluent bourgeois family and classically educated, Weil empathized with the plight of the poor from a very young age. Simone de Beauvoir, Weil's college mate and an eminent feminist writer, in her book 'Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter' extolled Weil's intelligence and her generous nature. Dubbed as one of the most original thinkers of her era, Simone penned a slew of poems and journals during her lifetime, although much of her works were published posthumously. Her works amalgamated irony with a highly intellectual prose style and depressed theology. Intellectually precocious, she was a rebel at heart

Simone Weil(03 February 1909 - 24

August 1943)

and chose to remain a virgin all throughout her life.Sir Arthur Lewis was a Saint Lucian economist who was well known for his contributions in the field of economic development. When blacks were normally barred from that academic profession, Sir Arthur Lewis broke one barrier after another by the sheer dint of his brilliance. He was a scholar and served as an economic advisor to many international commissions and to several African, Asian and Caribbean governments. He was also the first Black professor in Britain's university system and also at Princeton University in the United States later on. Arthur Lewis was the first person of African origin to receive a Nobel Prize in a field other than peace. He contributed significantly to the British government policy in his early years, and later in his life applied his economic development ideas as a consultant to various African governments. Sir Arthur had an illustrious carrier not only in academics. He spent the same number of years in administration too.

Sir Arthur Lewis(23 January 1915 - 15 June

1991)

Gerard Debreu was an economist born in France who became famous for his path breaking work in general equilibrium theory. A humble man, he was also justly noted for his gracious and polite attitude towards people. In economic circles and government policies, his work had a profound impact. Throughout his life he was recognized with various awards with the Nobel Prize being the most sterling jewelry in his illustrious career. He brought about a mathematical precision to economics, mostly in the theory of supply and demand. He also introduced new paths for various researchers to pursue by bringing

Gerard Debreu(04 July 1921 - 31 December 2004)

into light the idea of 'quasi-equilibrium', the idea of relation between goods and their monetary value which can be represented as a linear space and many more such theories. He was a prominent person with keen interest in human rights, and a childish sense of humor. Debreu was also very interested in politics. His students remember him for his playful nature while his colleagues treasure his sense of elegance.Franco Modigliani was an eminent Italian Economist and Nobel Prize Laureate, who, with his great passion for economics, formulated many theories in his domain. Though born in Italy, he spent most of his life in America, teaching and engaging in scripting works, all of course, related to his all-time passion — economics. He was a strong antifascist who actively participated in various resistance movements with the support of Littoriali, a student organization in Italy. Greatly influenced by the great Economist John Maynard Keynes, he developed many important economic theories, most important one being the life-cycle hypothesis, which he developed with fellow economists like Irving Fisher, Roy Harrod, and Albert Ando and for which he was given the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1985. In this hypothesis, he made significant analysis on savings and financial markets. He also inspired several economics aspirants with his lectures and important discourses

Franco Modigliani(10 June 1918 - 25 September 2003)

Ohlin’s biggest contribution was in the subject of Economics. In 1933, he altered and elaborated the economic theory written by Heckscher on international trade. He called this book ‘Interregional and International Trade’. This expanded theory of Ohlin on foreign trade and got its recognition through the Heckscher-Ohlin model.

Bertil Gotthard Ohlin(23 April 1899 - 03

August 1979)

Under the title, ‘The Beam In Your Eyes’, in ‘Asian Drama’, he brought about the concept of scientific relativism of values, which signified that he did not limit his theories to Economics alone. In his article, ‘Value in Social Theory’, he gave ample importance to political science and considered it to be more descriptive than economics. As a practitioner, Myrdal related the various aspects of political sciences, social sciences and economics.

Gunnar Myrdal(06 December 1898 - 17

May 1987)