Robert Lucas Jr.
American economist (1937-2023) · United States · Academics · Died at 85
Robert Lucas Jr. is read about 136 times a day, in 52 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 September 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He rewired how economists think about expectations - the idea that people aren't blindly backward-looking but adjust their behavior based on what policy will likely do next. That shift, called rational expectations, made him the most influential macroeconomist of the late 20th century.
A life in dates
Also in Deutsch
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In their own words 5
, I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole.
I do not see how one can look at figures like these without seeing them representing possibilities.
The main development I want to discuss has already occurred: Keynesian economics is dead [maybe ‘disappeared’ is a better term].
Awards
In their orbit
About this person
Robert Emerson Lucas Jr. was born September 15, 1937, and spent his career at the University of Chicago. He became the central figure in new classical macroeconomics by developing and applying the hypothesis of rational expectations - the notion that individuals form predictions using all available information, including the effects of policy itself. That work transformed how the field approached economic policy and earned him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1995. N. Gregory Mankiw later called him "the most influential macroeconomist of the last quarter of the 20th century." By 2020 he ranked as the 10th most cited economist in the world. He died May 15, 2023.
In common with Robert
Vernon L. SmithBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
William NordhausBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
Claudia GoldinBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
Paul M. RomerBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
John HarsanyiBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred NobelFame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.