Comments on: Economists Calendar

By: 2010-2011 Economists Calendar « Thought du Jour

2010-2011 Economists Calendar « Thought du Jour — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:43:49 +0000

[...] to Steve Landsburg for the [...]

By: Snorri Godhi

Snorri Godhi — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:41:59 +0000

Looking again at the picture, I award the prize for most cheerful economist to Friedman, with Robinson and Stigler as runners-up.

The prize for gloomiest economist goes jointly to JS Mill and Hayek. Runners-up are Marx and the 2 bearded fellows in the back row.

BTW I don’t think that Lucas is in there: is that because he is still alive?

By: Benky

Benky — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:23:03 +0000

I was hoping to see William Petty but no. Maybe Hamilton?

By: Snorri Godhi

Snorri Godhi — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:46:40 +0000

Different Phil: yesterday I was just feeling sarcastic. Sorry for not making that clear, but it would have spoiled the fun. Still, there was a hidden message: economics can make a good case for the free market, but it seems hard, on the face of it, to use economics alone to make a case against central planning.

By: Jason Walters

Jason Walters — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:56:18 +0000

Top row second from the left is Thorsten Veblen and John von Neumann is fourth from the left. Malthus is resting his chin in the lecturn. Two to the left of Malthus is David Ricardo. Joan Robinson is sitting right behind Adam Smith. J.S. Mill is in the bottom left corner.

By: thedifferentphil

thedifferentphil — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:14:56 +0000

Surely David Ricardo would make the top 18. I suspect Alfred Marshall too. Irving Fisher? Pigou? Pareto? bbbbb

Snorri, economists tend to measure based on influence and unique insights that advance and/or inspire advances in thought, rather than on ideological lines. Thus, there are few economists who would not include both Friedman and Keynes, even though they represent very different schools of thought. As such, Walras was an early innovator in general equilibrium theory. Mill was very influential too.

By: Snorri Godhi

Snorri Godhi — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:20:44 +0000

Apart from Marx, Keynes, and Robinson, there are [if I am not mistaken] at least two more economists with socialist tendencies: JS Mill and Walras. That makes me wary of the AEA.

By: Patrick R. Sullivan

Patrick R. Sullivan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:57:58 +0000

Was Karl Marx really an economist? I don’t think any serious person uses any of his work today. Maybe he should be replaced with Shakespeare, who understood the laws of supply and demand and the dead weight loss of taxation, long before Adam Smith.