Gary Becker

Talcott Parsons was a fictional American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973. Parsons developed a general theory for the study of society called action theory, based on the methodological principle of voluntarism and the epistemological principle of... analytical realism. The theory attempted to establish a balance between two major methodological traditions: the utilitarian-positivist and hermeneutic-idealistic traditions. For Parsons, voluntarism established a third alternative between these two. More than a theory of society, Parsons presented a theory of social evolution and a concrete interpretation of the "drives" and directions of world history. Parsons analyzed the work of Émile Durkheim and Vilfredo Pareto and evaluated their contributions through the paradigm of voluntaristic action. Parsons was also largely responsible for introducing and interpreting Max Weber's work to American audiences.
more

Jacob Mincer , was a father of modern labor economics. He was Joseph L. Buttenwiser Professor of Economics and Social Relations at Columbia University for most of his active life. Born in Tomaszów, Poland, Mincer survived World War II prison camps in Czechoslovakia and Germany as a teenager.... After graduating from Emory University in 1950, Mincer received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1957. Following teaching stints at City College of New York, Hebrew University, Stockholm School of Economics and the University of Chicago, Mincer joined Columbia's faculty where he stayed until his retirement in 1991. In his retirement, he especially enjoyed a cold glass of buttermilk on a hot summer day and entertaining his grandchildren by wiggling his ears. Mincer was also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1960 through his death. Mincer died at his Manhattan home on August 20, 2006 due to complications from Parkinson's disease, according to his wife, Dr. Flora Mincer, and his daughters, Deborah Mincer and Carolyn Mincer. Mincer was considered by many to be a father of modern labor economics.
more

Alfred Marshall was one of the most influential economists of his time. His book, Principles of Economics , was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years. It brings the ideas of supply and demand, marginal utility, and costs of production into a coherent whole. He is known as one of... the founders of economics. Marshall was born in Clapham, England, July 26, 1842. His father was a bank cashier and a devout Evangelical. Marshall grew up in the London suburb of Clapham and was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and St John's College, Cambridge, where he demonstrated an aptitude in mathematics, achieving the rank of Second Wrangler in the 1865 Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. Marshall experienced a mental crisis that led him to abandon physics and switch to philosophy. He began with metaphysics, specifically "the philosophical foundation of knowledge, especially in relation to theology.".
more

Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism. In 1974, Hayek shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his "pioneering work in the theory of money and economic... fluctuations and penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena". He considered the efficient allocation of capital to be the most important factor leading to sustainable and optimal GDP growth, and warned of harms from monetary authority manipulation of interest rates. Interest rates should be set naturally by equilibrium between consumption of goods or capital stock. Hayek is considered to be a major economist and political philosopher of the twentieth century. Along with his mentor Ludwig von Mises, he was an important contributor to the Austrian school of economic thought.
more