Gary S. Becker

Gary S. Becker is an American Economist and the Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 1992. Gary S. Becker achieved the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the study of human behavior in economics.

Personal, career and Academic profiles

Gary Stanley Becker was born on December 2, 1930 at Pottsville, Pennsylvania, United States.

In 1951, Gary S. Becker completed his B.A. from Princeton University.

In 1955, Becker was awarded PhD from the University of Chicago for his thesis on the economics of discrimination. The thesis clarified the fact that discrimination is costly to the person who discriminates. He also stated that companies that discriminated would lose market share to companies that did not.

During 1957 to 1969, Becker was engaged as a teacher in Columbia University. Becker got joint appointments in the department of economics and sociology and the graduate school of business.

In 1970, Gary S. Becker worked as a professor of economics at the University of Chicago.

Becker was also engaged with NBER (National Bureau of Economics Research) during the time period 1957-79

Honors and awards

In 1967, Becker won the John Bates Clark Medal

In 1992, Gary S. Becker was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his studies on human behavior through economic theories

Becker holds honorary degrees like doctor of humane letter, doctor laws, doctor of arts from a number of renowned universities.

He was honored doctor of humane letters from Princeton University, doctor philosophae honoris causa from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, doctor of laws from Knox College, Illinois, doctor of humane letters from Columbia University and doctor of arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Theories propounded

One of the famous theories of Gary S. Becker is the economics of discrimination, which clears up the fact that the idea of discrimination may be costly to the person, who discriminates. In this era of competition, the establishment that discriminated may lose market share to the establishments that did not.

Becker is well known for his observation and studies on economics of the family, human capital, economic analysis of crime, discrimination, and population. Gary S. Becker presently studying on areas of economics including human habits and addictions, human capital and population growth.

Major Works and publications

1952:"Classical Monetary Theory: The outcome of the discussion", with W.J. Baumol

1957:"A Statistical Illusion in Judging Keynesian Models", with M. Friedman

1958: "Competition and Democracy"

1959:"Union Restrictions on Entry"

1960:"An Economic Analysis of Fertility"

1962:"Irrational Behavior and Economic Theory"

1964: Human Capital

1965: "A Theory of the Allocation of Time." Economic Journal 40, no. 299

1968: "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach." Journal of Political Economy 76, no. 2

1971: The Economics of Discrimination, 2d ed.

1975: Human Capital, 2d ed.

1981:Treatise on the Family.