Gary Becker

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Gary Stanley Becker (born December 2, 1930) Born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, he earned a B.A. at Princeton University in 1951 and a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1955. He taught at Columbia University from 1957 to 1968, and then returned to Chicago, where he still teaches price theory to the new graduate students each year. He won the John Bates Clark Medal in 1967.

Becker was one of the first economists to branch into what were traditionally considered topics belonging to sociology, including racial discrimination, crime, family organization, and drug addiction. He is known for arguing that many different types of human behavior can be seen as rational and utility maximizing. His approach can include altruistic behavior by defining individuals' utility appropriately. He is also among the foremost exponents of the study of human capital. Becker is also credited with the "rotten kid theorem".

According to the Nobel Prize citation, his work can be categorized into four areas:

investments in human capital
behavior of the family (or household), including distribution of work and allocation of time in the family
crime and punishment
discrimination on the markets for labor and goods.

Becker also received National Medal of Science in 2000.

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[edit] Major works

Gary S. Becker (1957, 1971, 2nd Ed.). The Economics of Discrimination. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226041158.
Gary Becker (1968). "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach". The Journal of Political Economy 76: 169-217.
Gary S. Becker (1981, Enlarged ed., 1991). A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-90698-5. (HUP descr.)
Gary S. Becker (1996). Accounting for Tastes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-54357-2. (HUP descr)
Gary Becker and H. Gregg Lewis (1973). "On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children". The Journal of Political Economy 81: S279-S288.
Gary S. Becker and Gilbert Ghez (1975). The Allocation of Time and Goods Over the Life Cycle. New York, Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-870-14514-2.
Gary Becker and George J. Stigler (1977). "De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum". The American Economic Review 67: 76-90.
Gary Becker and Kevin M. Murphy (1988). "A Theory of Rational Addiction". The Journal of Political Economy 96: 675-700.