Dear NBER Board, Family and Staff Members:
I am very sorry to convey the news that Gary Becker, one of the most
creative and influential economists of the last century, passed away on
Saturday May 3 at the age of 83. Gary was a University Professor in the
Departments of Economics and Sociology, and in the Booth School of
Business, at the University of Chicago, and a Senior Fellow at the
Hoover Institution.
Gary brought powerful and illuminating insights to a wide range of
economic issues. His work not only expanded the subject matter of
economics but also fundamentally changed our understanding of many
components of modern economies. He explored the operation of labor
markets, the economics of discrimination, human capital and the
investment in new skills, the economics of the family and other social
institutions, and law and economics. The University of Chicago's
announcement of Gary's passing includes a longer description of his many
contributions:
news.uchicago.edu/article/2014/05/04/gary-s-becker-nobel-winning-scholar-economics-and-sociology-1930-2014?utm_source=newsmodule
Gary received his undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton
in 1951, and his Ph.D. from Chicago in 1955. Aside from an eleven-year
stint at Columbia University (1957-1968), he spent his whole career on
the Chicago faculty. Gary was a Research Associate of the NBER from
1957 until 1979, and he was an active participant in the work of the
NBER's Center for Economic Analysis of Human Behavior and Social
Institutions.
Gary received many honors in recognition of his scientific
contributions, including the John Bates Clark Medal (1967), the Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1992), the National Medal of
Science (2000), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2007). He was a
towering figure whose ideas touched everyone who studied economics and
who greatly enriched our field. He will be very deeply missed.
Jim Poterba
Received on Sun May 04 2014 - 23:21:22 EDT
