People

Most Influential Economists

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Updated:4/9/2026
18/18
Name
Nationality
Born
Died
School
Key Idea
Adam Smith
Scottish1,7231,790ClassicalThe Wealth of Nations (1776), invisible hand, division of labor
Karl Marx
German1,8181,883MarxistDas Kapital, labor theory of value, critique of capitalism
John Maynard Keynes
British1,8831,946KeynesianGeneral Theory (1936), government spending in recessions
Friedrich Hayek
Austrian-British1,8991,992AustrianThe Road to Serfdom, price signals, Nobel 1974
Milton Friedman
American1,9122,006Chicago / MonetaristMonetarism, free markets, Capitalism and Freedom, Nobel 1976
David Ricardo
British1,7721,823ClassicalComparative advantage, theory of rent
Thomas Malthus
British1,7661,834ClassicalPopulation grows geometrically while food grows arithmetically
Alfred Marshall
British1,8421,924NeoclassicalPrinciples of Economics (1890), supply and demand scissors
Joseph Schumpeter
Austrian-American1,8831,950Austrian / EvolutionaryCreative destruction, entrepreneurship as engine of growth
Paul Samuelson
American1,9152,009Neo-KeynesianFirst American Nobel in economics (1970), dominant textbook for decades
John Kenneth Galbraith
Canadian-American1,9082,006InstitutionalistThe Affluent Society, countervailing power
Amartya Sen
Indian1,9330Welfare economicsDevelopment as Freedom, capability approach, Nobel 1998
Gary Becker
American1,9302,014ChicagoHuman capital, economics of discrimination, Nobel 1992
Paul Krugman
American1,9530Neo-KeynesianNew trade theory, economic geography, Nobel 2008, NYT columnist
Thomas Piketty
French1,9710InequalityCapital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), r > g
Joseph Stiglitz
American1,9430Neo-KeynesianInformation asymmetry, Nobel 2001, globalization critic
Irving Fisher
American1,8671,947Neoclassical / MonetaryQuantity theory of money, debt deflation theory
Elinor Ostrom
American1,9332,012InstitutionalGoverning the Commons, first woman Nobel economics 2009

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