Famous British Economists

A winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Friedrich von Hayek, was an advocate of classical liberalism. The Austrian-British economist, who was also a political philosopher, co-founded the Mont Pelerin Society. He worked at the London School of Economics, the University of Chicago and the University of Freiburg and authored the popular book, The Road to Serfdom.

John Maynard Keynes was an English economist. His ideas are credited with changing the theory and practice of the economic policies and macroeconomics of governments at a fundamental level. Counted among the 20th century's most influential economists, Keynes' ideas are the basis for Keynesian economics. In 1999, he was named in Time magazine's Most Important People of the Century list.

Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist and demographer, who viewed poverty as man’s unavoidable destiny. Author of An Essay on the Principle of Population; he believed that increase in national food production results in feeling of well-being, leading to population growth, which in turn results in poverty. Commonly referred as Malthusianism, it made immediate impact on British social policy.

One of the co-founders of the English neoclassical school of economics, 19th-century economist Alfred Marshall is best remembered for his path-breaking book Principles of Economics. His studies on topics such as marginal utility, consumer’s surplus, and the elasticity of demand, enriched the field of economics for years to come.

Conservative Party politician George Osborne is the son of Osborne & Little co-founder Sir Peter Osborne. He initially aspired to be a journalist but started his career as an MP from Tatton and later served as the Chancellor Of The Exchequer and the First Secretary of State of the U.K.

British-American economist and Nobel laureate Ronald Coase was a significant figure of new institutional economics. As a child, he attended a school for the disabled due to weakness in his legs. The Chicago Law School professor is remembered for his iconic essays such as The Nature of the Firm.

Born to a British civil servant in British India, William Beveridge was educated at Oxford. While he initially excelled in math and classics, he later studied law. A leading economist, he created the Beveridge Report, which formulated the welfare state policies in the U.K. after World War II.

Noted British economist Sir John Hicks, counted among the leading economists of the twentieth century, made significant contributions to general equilibrium theory and welfare theory for which he jointly received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. His book Value and Capital is regarded as a classic exposition of microeconomic theory and includes extension of general equilibrium theory.

Post-Keynesian economist Joan Robinson specialized in monetary economics and is remembered for her research and academic activities in India, China, and Korea. Initially a Cambridge lecturer, she later taught at Girton College and became the first woman to be made an honorary fellow of King's College.

Apart from being one of the heiresses of the affluent Rothschild banking family, Emma Georgina Rothschild is also a famous economic historian, a Harvard professor, and a former United Nations Foundation board member. She has also worked at MIT and Cambridge and is married to Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.

A pioneer of the mathematical method in economics, William Stanley Jevons was the son of an iron merchant and economic enthusiast. Remembered for his studies on marginal utility and supply/demand, he penned the iconic work A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy and also wrote on Britain’s depleting coal supplies.

British-American economist and Nobel laureate Angus Deaton revolutionized applied economics with his work on consumption, savings, poverty, and development. Apart from teaching at Princeton, he has penned multiple award-winning papers and given rise to concepts such as the Deaton Paradox. He was also the first to receive the Frisch Medal.

British philosopher and mathematician Frank P. Ramsey was the son of a famed mathematician and later laid down the Ramsey theory of mathematical logic. The Cambridge alumnus also translated Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus but died at age 26, probably due to a liver infection he contracted while swimming.

Hungarian-British polymath Michael Polanyi contributed to a wide range of subjects, such as chemistry, philosophy, and economics, and also had a medical diploma. He is best remembered for his research on the adsorption of gases but moved away from chemistry after fleeing to England ro escape the Nazi regime.

Renowned economist and award-winning BBC journalist Evan Davis is best known for presenting shows such as Dragons' Den, Newsnight, and Today. The Oxford and Harvard alumnus has also been BBC's economics editor and has co-authored books such as Public Spending. He is openly gay and is married to a French architect.

German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher was one of the significant figures behind the formation of Britain’s post-World War II welfare state plans. His ground-breaking book Small Is Beautiful explained how capitalism was detrimental to culture. He also developed the concept of intermediate technology.

The son of a preacher, economist Nicholas Barbon actively participated in reconstructing London following the Great Fire of 1666 and then launched his own insurance company, pioneering fire insurance. As an economist, he penned significant works on the free market and division of labor. He was also a qualified doctor.

A leading free-market and neoclassical economist, Lionel Charles Robbins, or Baron Robbins, was known for his association with the London School of Economics. The son of a farmer, he trained to fight at World War I but went back home wounded. He also laid down his own definition of economics.

Padma Bhushan-winning Indian-American economist and Columbia University professor Arvind Panagariya is known for his iconic books such as India: The Emerging Giant and Why Growth Matters. The Princeton alumnus has worked at the IMF and UNCTAD and been the Asian Development Bank’s chief economist and the NITI Aayog’s first vice chairman.

Political scientist and Labour Party member Harold Laski later deviated to Communism. Born to a cotton merchant, he studied at Oxford and then taught at Harvard. Remembered for his works such as A Grammar of Politics and Authority in the Modern State, he was also a Zionism supporter.

Sociologist Beatrice Webb is best remembered for coining the term collective bargaining. Along with her husband, Sidney Webb, whom she met at the Fabian Society, and others, Beatrice co-founded the London School of Economics. In spite of her lack of formal education, she was a prominent educator and an avid diarist.

British economist Mervyn King, Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal, serves as School Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and as Chairman of the Philharmonia. He taught at the University of Birmingham, Harvard and MIT, and served the Bank of England as a non-executive director, chief economist, deputy governor and lastly as Governor.  

Nobel Prize-winning British-Cypriot economist Christopher A. Pissarides is best known for his work on the frictions in search markets. He also contributed to the development of the concept of matching functions. He penned the iconic book Equilibrium Unemployment Theory and was also knighted for his achievements.

One of Alfred Marshall’s favorite students, Arthur Cecil Pigou was initially a history scholar at King's College but later deviated to economics. One of the most significant figures of neoclassical economics, he specialized in welfare economics and penned pathbreaking works such as The Economics of Welfare.

Journalist and economist Tim Harford has penned bestsellers such as The Undercover Economist, which is also the title of his popular Financial Times column. A TED speaker, he also presented the BBC radio series More or Less and is the only journalist to be a Royal Statistical Society honorary fellow.

British-American economist and Harvard professor Oliver Hart was born to a medical researcher father and a gynecologist mother. The Cambridge and Princeton alumnus later won a Nobel Prize with Bengt Holmström for their research on contract theory. He has also taught at MIT and LSE.

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish economist and statistician, known for his significant contributions to the methods of statistics. An autodidact in mathematics and economics, he imaginatively applied mathematics to the fields of economics and statistics, writing several books, including Mathematical Psychics, presenting new ideas on various topics like on the generalized utility function, the indifference curve etc.  .

Initially a physician and anatomy professor, William Petty also taught music. However, he later established himself as a noted economist and became famous for his works such as Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. He was a surveyor under Oliver Cromwell and was a pioneer of political arithmetic.

Born to Thai-Chinese medical professors in England, academic and politician Abhisit Vejjajiva was educated at the elite institutes Eton and Oxford. He later joined Thailand’s Democrat Party and became famous for his policies such as free education. In 2008, he became Thailand’s youngest prime minister in over 50 years.

An influential English ethical philosopher and economist of the Victorian era, Henry Sidgwick is perhaps best known for his utilitarian treatise The Methods of Ethics. He promoted higher education of women and co-founded Newnham College. He remained a member of the Metaphysical Society and co-founded and served as first president of the Society for Psychical Research.

British journalist Martin Harry Wolf presently works with the Financial Times as a associate editor and chief economics commentator. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2000 in recognition to his services to financial journalism.  

William Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He worked in a wide range of fields, publishing works in the disciplines of physics, mechanics, geology, economics, and astronomy. He also wrote poetry, sermons, and theological tracts. He is credited with coining the terms linguistics, physicist, consilience, scientist, catastrophism, and uniformitarianism.

British economist and author Howard Davies, who presently serve as chairman of NatWest Group and Professor at Paris School of International Affairs, served as the first chairman of Financial Services Authority. He also served as director of the London School of Economics and chairman of Phoenix Group and UK Airports Commission. He became chairman of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group in 2015.

Scottish engineer and political economist William Playfair is best-remembered as the inventor of statistical graphs and secret agent for Great Britain during its war with France. He published the first data graphs in his book The Commercial and Political Atlas. He used line, area and bar charts to represent the economy of 18th Century England and introduced the pie chart.

British-American researcher, historian, economist, writer and professor Antony Cyril Sutton served as a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace and as a professor of economics at California State University, Los Angeles. He authored 25 books and is best-known for his book America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones.

British economist Angus Maddison specialised in quantitative macroeconomic history and is noted for documenting economic performances of major countries across continents. He served as the Head of OEEC Economics Division and as Assistant Director at the Economic Development Department of OECD. He authored several books on historical economic analysis, most notably The World Economy: Historical Statistics.

Born to a hat manufacturer, James Wilson initially wished to study law but later joined his father’s business. Over the years, he established what is now the Standard Chartered Bank. Sent to Kolkata by Queen Victoria to introduce tax reforms, he introduced paper currency in the country, but died of dysentery.

Scottish economist and Nobel laureate James Mirrlees is best remembered for his research on economic incentives in situations with incomplete information. Educated at Cambridge, he later taught at his alma and other prestigious institutes such as MIT and Oxford. He was knighted for his achievements, too.

The son of a surgeon, economist Arnold Toynbee studied at Balliol College and later taught there, too. He was a prominent social reformer who spoke for the working class and supported trade unions. Unfortunately, he died of exhaustion and breakdown after being overworked. Toynbee Hall was named after him.

Born to a lower-middle-class family, economist Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield had quit school before 16 but later attended evening classes to clear both the civil service and bar exams. He and his wife, Beatrice Webb, were both part of the Fabian Society and co-founded the London School of Economics.

Educated at Cambridge, legendary British economist and philosopher John Neville Keynes later taught moral science there and became its registrar. He revolutionized the field of economics by merging both the inductive and deductive approaches to the subject. His son, John Maynard Keynes, too, was a prominent economist.