Need to pick an economist - help!

[BCPVP]

Any particular perspective you're interested in?

[edtost]

paul samuelson, merton miller, franco modigliani, harry markowitz

[MrMon]

David Ricardo.

One of the first real economists, no one knows much about him, yet he is very important. A lot of the later economists are difficult to talk about because their theories are rather technical, but Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage and the case for free trade are easy to talk about and you can keep a class fascinated for any amount of time on this topic alone.

Good suggestions given so far...another one I've had to tirelessly explain to non-econ people is Art Laffer, hero for popularizing the Laffer Curve and giving 1980's hack reporters ammunition against supply-side economics and the "Laugher Curve." He didn't invent the idea behind the curve, he just put it in a graph. He may not be a good choice if you want to explore depth of work or overall economic contribution, but if you think you can squeeze a paper out of the economic and political ramifications of the Laffer Curve, go for it. Good luck.

Laffer Curve article by Laffer

ScottieK

[sfer]

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

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paul samuelson, merton miller, franco modigliani, harry markowitz

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paul samuelson is my great uncle (just thought i might throw that out there, your probably in awe of me)

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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.

[Position]

To totally show up all those trendy Freakonomicsers:

Steven Landsburg - The Armchair Economist
OR
David Friedman - Hidden Order

Both did Freakonomics better than Levitt, a decade before. They're each more interesting thinkers than Levitt.

[renodoc]

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Paul Krugman is a topical choice w/ buttloads of available material.

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Dude, He is looking for an economist, not a [censored].

[jdl22]

I'd go with Matthew Rabin.

He's a behavioral economist (in other words he incorporates psychology into economics) and writes interesting stuff.

here's a link to his homepage

here's a link to info on him on wikipedia

An easier option, which is also quite good would be to go for Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. They are actually psychologists that won the nobel prize in economics for their work in behavioral economics, most notably in prospect theory.

If you have any questions about the above, let me know.

Jared