Robert Lucas Jr.
Central figure in new classical macroeconomics and rational expectations.
He was born on September 15, 1937, in Yakima, Washington, and died in Chicago on May 15, 2023.[1][2] Robert Emerson Lucas Jr., born September 15, 1937, was an economist at the University of Chicago who in 1995 received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for developing and applying the hypothesis of rational expectations.[3][4]
Quick Facts
- School of thought
- New classical macroeconomics
- Birth name
- Robert Emerson Lucas Jr.
- Born
- 15 September 1937
- Birthplace
- Yakima, Washington, U.S.
- Died
- 15 May 2023
- Place of death
- Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
- Institution
- Carnegie Mellon University, University of Chicago
- Field
- Macroeconomics
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Lucas was the eldest child of Robert Emerson Lucas and Jane Templeton Lucas, who ran an ice creamery in Yakima.[1] He taught at Carnegie Mellon University until 1975, then returned to the University of Chicago.[5] Lucas married an undergraduate classmate, Rita Cohen, and they had two sons, Stephen and Joseph.[6]
What the cited sources add
A 2022 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis article notes that Lucas's 1972 paper "Expectations and the neutrality of money" turned 50 years old and influenced thinking across macroeconomics.[7] The same source states that Lucas applied rational expectations to study inflation and unemployment, and his theory essentially predicted the stagflation the U.S. experienced after its publication.[7] The source adds that after Lucas, economists "cannot proceed without modeling expectations" with mathematical rigor.[7] The 1995 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Lucas for having "rapidly and thoroughly transformed" the study of macroeconomics and economic policy, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis article.[7]
Lucas was one of the earliest economists to recognize that economic actors do not have perfect foresight.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Robert Lucas Jr." (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Roberts, "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel-Winning Conservative Economist, Dies at 85", The New York Times, May 17, 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Lucas Jr." (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Roberts, "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel-Winning Conservative Economist, Dies at 85", The New York Times, May 17, 2023; Lee, "Robert E. Lucas Jr., Nobel laureate and pioneering economist, 1937–2023", University of Chicago, May 16, 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Lucas Jr." (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Snowdon, "Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origin, Development and Current State", Edgar Elgar, 2005, p. 220–223; "Robert E. Lucas, Jr. American economist"; "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995", Nobel Foundation; Mankiw, "Back In Demand", Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009; "Top 10% Authors, as of July 2020", IDEAS/RePEc (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995", Nobel Foundation. facts only, no text reused. nobelprize.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Lucas Jr." (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pressman, "Fifty Major Economists", Routledge, 1999, p. 193–197 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Lucas Jr." (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lucas, "Robert E. Lucas Jr. – Biographical", Nobel Foundation (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "With inflation front and center, work that launched rational expectations revolution still resonates." Published 2022. Acc. facts only, no text reused. minneapolisfed.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Robert Lucas Jr. (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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