Famous American Economists

List of famous American economists with their biographies that include trivia, interesting facts, timeline and life history.

Do you know Adam Smith? The guy who appears on the back of £20 note. That is right! He is the mastermind behind concepts of free trade, market competition and the morality of private enterprise and his famous book of economics titled “Wealth of Nations” is the cornerstone of all modern day economic policies? Such is the clout of an economist over a nation, its people and its financial system. Calvin Coolidge has rightly said, "Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow." Since time immemorial, economists have been providing people with invaluable insights on economic policies, banking, and money at large. They have been the guiding force behind a country’s economic growth and progress. They are the reasons why a layman understands how a foreign and domestic market operates. They help taxpayers make reasoned and rational choices for short-term and long-term financial benefits. Above all, the economists teach us how to manage and use finite resources like time and money. Today we explore the timeline, trivia, and interesting facts on some of America’s most renowned economists in the biographies below.

Milton Friedman

31 July 1912

16 November 2006

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Leo

Alan Greenspan

06 March 1926

New York City

Pisces

Daniel Kahneman

05 March 1934

Tel Aviv, Israel

Pisces

Michael Porter

23 May 1947

Ann Arbor

Gemini

Benjamin Graham

09 May 1894

21 September 1976

London, United Kingdom

Taurus

Paul Samuelson

15 May 1915

13 December 2009

Gary

Taurus

Gary Becker

02 December 1930

03 May 2014

Pottsville, Pennsylvania, United States

Sagittarius

Henry George

02 September 1839

29 October 1897

Philadelphia

Virgo

Douglass North

05 November 1920

23 November 2015

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Scorpio

Harry Markowitz

24 August 1927

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Virgo

Kenneth Arrow

23 August 1921

New York City, USA

Leo

Robert Solow

23 August 1924

Brooklyn, New York

Leo

Simon Kuznets

30 April 1901

08 July 1985

Pinsk

Taurus

Myron Scholes

01 July 1941

Timmins, Ontario, Canada

Cancer

Robert C. Merton

31 July 1944

New York City, New York, USA

Leo

Robert Fogel

01 July 1926

11 June 2013

New York City, New York, United States

Cancer

James Tobin

05 March 1918

11 March 2002

Champaign

Pisces

Wassily Leontief

05 August 1905

05 February 1999

Munich

Leo

William F. Sharpe

16 June 1934

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

Gemini

Joseph E. Stiglitz

09 February 1943

Gary

Aquarius

Herbert Simon

15 June 1916

09 February 2001

Milwaukee

Gemini

Theodore Schultz

30 April 1902

26 February 1998

Arlington, South Dakota, United States

Taurus

Daniel McFadden

29 July 1937

Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.

Leo

Gerard Debreu

04 July 1921

31 December 2004

Calais

Cancer

Lawrence Klein

14 September 1920

20 October 2013

Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.

Virgo

Emily Greene Balch

08 January 1867

09 January 1961

Boston

Capricorn

George Joseph Stigler

17 January 1911

01 December 1991

Seattle

Capricorn

Merton H. Miller

16 May 1923

03 June 2000

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Taurus

Robert Lucas Jr.

15 September 1937

Yakima, Washington, USA

Virgo

John C Harsanyi

29 May 1920

09 August 2000

Budapest

Gemini

Ben Bernanke

13 December 1953

Augusta, Georgia, United States

Sagittarius

Bernard Madoff

29 April 1938

New York City

Taurus

Janet Yellen

13 August 1946

Brooklyn

Leo

Angus Deaton

19 October 1945

Edinburgh

Libra

Joseph Stiglitz

09 February 1943

Gary

Aquarius

Paul Krugman

28 February 1953

Albany

Pisces

Robert McNamara

09 June 1916

06 July 2009

San Francisco

Gemini

Frederick Winslow Taylor

20 March 1856

21 March 1915

Germantown

Pisces

Fareed Zakaria

20 January 1964

Mumbai

Capricorn

Paul Volcker

05 September 1927

Cape May

Virgo

Lawrence Summers

30 November 1954

New Haven

Sagittarius

Thomas Sowell

30 June 1930

Gastonia

Cancer

Francis Fukuyama

27 October 1952

Chicago

Scorpio

Scott Adams

08 June 1957

Windham (town), New York

Gemini

Herbert A. Simon

15 June 1916

09 February 2001

Milwaukee

Gemini

Benoit Mandelbrot

20 November 1924

14 October 2010

Warsaw

Scorpio

Paul Wolfowitz

22 December 1943

Brooklyn

Sagittarius

George Akerlof

17 June 1940

New Haven

Gemini

Thorstein Veblen

30 July 1857

03 August 1929

Columbia

Leo

Jeffrey Sachs

05 November 1954

Detroit

Scorpio

Robert J. Shiller

29 March 1946

Detroit

Aries

Elinor Ostrom

07 August 1933

12 June 2012

Los Angeles

Leo

Jeremy Rifkin

26 January 1945

Denver

Aquarius

Eugene Fama

14 February 1939

Boston

Aquarius

Immanuel Wallerstein

28 September 1930

New York City

Libra

Stanley Fischer

15 October 1943

Mazabuka

Libra

Mohamed A. El-Erian

19 August 1958

New York City

Leo

Paul Craig Roberts

03 April 1939

Atlanta

Aries

Irving Fisher

27 February 1867

29 April 1947

Saugerties

Pisces

Rexford Tugwell

10 July 1891

21 July 1979

Sinclairville

Cancer

Hyman Minsky

23 September 1919

24 October 1996

Chicago

Virgo

George Stigler

17 January 1911

01 December 1991

Seattle

Capricorn

Chris Argyris

16 July 1923

16 November 2013

Newark

Cancer

Nouriel Roubini

29 March 1958

Istanbul

Aries

Greg Mankiw

03 February 1958

Trenton

Aquarius

James M. Buchanan

03 October 1919

09 January 2013

Murfreesboro

Libra

Robert Lucas, Jr.

15 September 1937

Yakima

Virgo

Edward Luttwak

04 November 1942

Arad

Scorpio

Peter R. Orszag

16 December 1968

Boston

Sagittarius

Walt Whitman Rostow

07 October 1916

13 February 2003

New York City

Libra

David D. Friedman

12 February 1945

New York City

Aquarius

Richard Thaler

12 September 1945

East Orange

Virgo

Harry Dexter White

09 October 1892

16 August 1948

Boston

Libra

Warren Bennis

08 March 1925

31 July 2014

New York City

Pisces

Robert Aumann

08 June 1930

Frankfurt

Gemini

Friedrich List

06 August 1789

30 November 1846

Reutlingen

Leo

Vernon L. Smith

01 January 1927

Wichita

Capricorn

Oliver E. Williamson

27 September 1932

Superior

Libra

Tyler Cowen

21 January 1962

Bergen County

Aquarius

Alvin E. Roth

18 December 1951

New York City

Sagittarius

Fischer Black

11 January 1938

30 August 1995

Washington, D.C.

Capricorn

Mancur Olson

22 January 1932

19 February 1998

Grand Forks

Aquarius

Lars Peter Hansen

26 October 1952

Champaign

Scorpio

Deirdre McCloskey

11 September 1942

Ann Arbor

Virgo

Martin Feldstein

25 November 1939

New York City

Sagittarius

William Easterly

07 September 1957

Morgantown

Virgo

Michael Spence

07 November 1943

Montclair, New Jersey

Scorpio

Thomas Woods

01 August 1972

Melrose

Leo

Julian Simon

12 February 1932

08 February 1998

Newark

Aquarius

Simon Newcomb

12 March 1835

11 July 1909

Nova Scotia

Pisces

James Heckman

19 April 1944

Chicago

Aries

Daniel Yergin

06 February 1947

Los Angeles

Aquarius

Raj Chetty

04 August 1979

New Delhi

Leo

Austan Goolsbee

18 August 1969

Waco

Leo

Henry Hazlitt

28 November 1894

09 July 1993

Philadelphia

Sagittarius

Jason Furman

18 August 1970

New York City

Leo

Leonid Hurwicz

21 August 1917

24 June 2008

Moscow

Leo

Paul Romer

06 November 1955

Denver

Scorpio

Walter Block

21 August 1941

Brooklyn

Leo

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