Need to pick an economist - help!

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The best are the ones who wrote papers that are simple and intuitively appealing. George Akerlof comes to mind immediately.

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This is a really good idea. The Market For Lemons took years to get published as many journals thought it was too obvious, yet was one of the most seminal, widely-cited articles of the 20th century.

Nobel Prize-winner Amartya Sen with his groundbreaking work on poverty and development (sometimes working close to the boundaries with political theory) would be another good choice.