Gary Stanley Becker
Gary Stanley Becker was an American economist born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1930. Becker is described by the New York Times as “the most important social scientist in the past 50 years and possibly longer” (Wolfers 2014). Over his career, he made astonishing accomplishments that no other economics have made. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science in 1992, was the Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the University Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. Moreover, He served as an economic policy adviser for the Dole presidential campaign in 1996 and received the National Medal of Science in 2000 and the Jacob Mincer Prize in 2004. Becker was also the recipient of the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He’s especially known and celebrated for his knowledge of economics of crime, population, human capital and discrimination; “he was motivated by the belief that economics, taken seriously, could improve the human condition” (Wolfers 2014). It’s important to note that very few economists have thought about such notion and even applied economic analysis on social issues such as racial discrimination. In his book, The Economics of Discrimination (1971), he talked about …show more content…
In his work titled Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment (1974), he asked the question: " ... how many resources and how much punishment should be used to enforce different kinds of legislation? Put equivalently, although more strangely, how many offenses should be permitted and how many offenders should go unpunished” (Becker 1974). He would go on and assessed the notion of “rational crime”. That is, just like any other economic agent, a criminal seeks to maximize their utilities; the only difference is they choose to do so through means deem
He’s especially known and celebrated for his knowledge of economics of crime, population, human capital and discrimination; “he was motivated by the belief that economics, taken seriously, could improve the human condition” (Wolfers 2014). It’s important to note that very few economists have thought about such notion and even applied economic analysis on social issues such as racial discrimination. In his book, The Economics of Discrimination (1971), he talked about …show more content…
In his work titled Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment (1974), he asked the question: " ... how many resources and how much punishment should be used to enforce different kinds of legislation? Put equivalently, although more strangely, how many offenses should be permitted and how many offenders should go unpunished” (Becker 1974). He would go on and assessed the notion of “rational crime”. That is, just like any other economic agent, a criminal seeks to maximize their utilities; the only difference is they choose to do so through means deem