PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: economics
Scottish philosopher
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and political economist, instrumental in the rise of classical liberalism. Adam Smith is a towering figure in the history of economic thought. Known primarily...
British economist
F.A. Hayek was an Austrian-born British economist noted for his criticisms of the Keynesian welfare state and of totalitarian socialism. In 1974 he shared the Nobel Prize for Economics with Swedish economist...
German sociologist
Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist best known for his thesis of the “Protestant ethic,” relating Protestantism to capitalism, and for his ideas on bureaucracy. Weber was the eldest...
German philosopher
Friedrich Engels was a German socialist philosopher, the closest collaborator of Karl Marx in the foundation of modern communism. They coauthored The Communist Manifesto (1848), and Engels edited the second...
president of Côte d’Ivoire
Alassane Ouattara is an Ivoirian economist and politician who was elected president of Côte d’Ivoire in 2010. Despite Ouattara’s victory, the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to step down, and the two...
president of Argentina
Javier Milei is a confrontational right-wing outsider who rose to the presidency of Argentina in 2023 on a tide of voter dissatisfaction with a political elite whom his supporters blamed for endemic hyperinflation,...
British philosopher and economist
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, economist, and theoretical jurist, the earliest and chief expounder of utilitarianism. At the age of four, Bentham, the son of an attorney, is said to have read...
American economist
Milton Friedman was an American economist and educator, one of the leading proponents of monetarism in the second half of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976. (Read Milton...
Indian politician and economist
Nirmala Sitharaman (born August 18, 1959, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian politician and economist who was first appointed as the minister of finance and minister of corporate affairs in the central...
American economist and sociologist
Thorstein Veblen was an American economist and social scientist who sought to apply an evolutionary, dynamic approach to the study of economic institutions. With The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)...
president of Liberia
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician and economist who was president of Liberia (2006–18). She was the first woman to be elected head of state of an African country. Sirleaf was one of three...
English economist and demographer
Thomas Malthus was an English economist and demographer who is best known for his theory that population growth will always tend to outrun the food supply and that betterment of humankind is impossible...
French American economist
Esther Duflo is a French-American economist who, with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer, was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of...
American economist
Claudia Goldin is an American economist and winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel) for “having advanced our understanding...
prime minister of Italy
Mario Draghi is an Italian economist who served from 2011 to 2019 as president of the European Central Bank (ECB), the financial institution responsible for making monetary decisions within the eurozone,...
British economist
John Maynard Keynes was an English economist, journalist, and financier best known for his economic theories (Keynesian economics) on the causes of prolonged unemployment. His most important work, The...
Ghanaian economist, banker, and politician
Mahamudu Bawumia is a Ghanian economist, banker, and politician affiliated with the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He served as vice president of Ghana from 2017 until 2025. Bawumia was a candidate in the...
British economist
David Ricardo was an English economist who gave systematized, classical form to the rising science of economics in the 19th century. His laissez-faire doctrines were typified in his Iron Law of Wages,...
American economist
Ben Bernanke is an American economist who served as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”), the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014. In 2022 he and...
British economist and journalist
Walter Bagehot was an economist, political analyst, and editor of The Economist who was one of the most influential journalists of the mid-Victorian period. His father’s family had been general merchants...
Italian criminologist
Cesare Beccaria was an Italian criminologist and economist whose Dei delitti e delle pene (1764; Eng. trans. J.A. Farrer, Crimes and Punishment, 1880) was a celebrated volume on the reform of criminal...
American economist
Michael Kremer is an American economist who, with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred...
prime minister of Canada
Mark Carney is a Canadian economist who became prime minister of Canada in March 2025 after he was elected leader of the Liberal Party. He had previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008...
Bulgarian economist
Kristalina Georgieva (born August 13, 1953, Sofia, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian economist and the leader of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). When she took the position in 2019, she was the first person...
French bishop, scholar, and economist
Nicholas Oresme was a French Roman Catholic bishop, scholastic philosopher, economist, and mathematician whose work provided some basis for the development of modern mathematics and science and of French...
American economist
Richard Thaler is an American economist who was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Economics for his contributions to behavioral economics, a field of microeconomics that applies the findings of psychology...
Turkish-American economist
Daron Acemoglu is a Turkish-American economist and winner, with Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of...
American economist
Paul Milgrom is an American economist who, with Robert Wilson, was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel) for his contributions...
Canadian-American economist
David Card Canadian-American economist who was awarded one-half of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel) “for his empirical contributions...
American economist
Simon Johnson is an English-American economist and winner, with Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of...
Indian-born American economist
Abhijit Banerjee is an Indian-born American economist who, with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory...
French economist
Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, baron de l’Aulne was a French economist who was an administrator under Louis XV and served as the comptroller general of finance (1774–76) under Louis XVI. His efforts at instituting...
American economist
Alan Greenspan is an American economist and was the chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, whose chairmanship (1987–2006) continued through the administrations of four American...
German economist and politician
Horst Köhler was a German economist and politician who served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (2000–04) and as president of Germany (2004–10). Horst also was Germany’s lead official...
Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist
James Mill was a Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist. He was prominent as a representative of philosophical radicalism, a school of thought also known as Utilitarianism, which emphasized the...
Dutch-American economist
Guido Imbens is a Dutch-American economist who, with the Israeli-American economist Joshua Angrist, was awarded one-half of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences...
French economist and politician
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a French economist and politician who served (2007–11) as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—the United Nations agency that helps maintain a stable...
American economist
Robert B. Wilson is an American economist who, with Paul Milgrom, was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel) for his contributions...
Indian economist
Amartya Sen is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory and for his interest in the problems of...
Israeli-American economist
Joshua Angrist is an Israeli-American economist who, with the Dutch-American economist Guido Imbens, was awarded one-half of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic...
French lawyer and politician
Christine Lagarde is a French lawyer and politician who was the first woman to serve as France’s finance minister (2007–11), as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF; 2011–19),...
Zambian economist and writer
Dambisa Moyo is a Zambisa economist and writer whose books, articles, and public lectures centre on the creation of wealth and the perpetuation of poverty in a global economy. Much of her writing focuses...
American economist
Paul Volcker was an American economist and banker who, as chairman of the board of governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (1979–87), played a key role in the economic program of President Ronald...
American economist
Janet Yellen is an American economist, who was the chair (2014–18) of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (commonly known as the Fed), the central bank of the United States, and secretary...
American economist
Arthur Laffer is an American economist who propounded the idea that lowering tax rates could result in higher revenues. His theory on taxes influenced U.S. economic policy in the 1980s, which during the...
French economist
Thomas Piketty is a French economist who was best known for Le Capital au XXIe siècle (2013; Capital in the Twenty-first Century). Piketty was born to militant Trotskyite parents and was later politically...
prime minister of Italy
Mario Monti is an Italian economist, academic, and bureaucrat who served as prime minister of Italy (2011–13). Monti, the son of a banker, studied economics and management at Bocconi University in Milan...
American economist
Henry George was a land reformer and economist who in Progress and Poverty (1879) proposed the single tax: that the state tax away all economic rent—the income from the use of bare land but not from improvements—and...
Argentine economist and politician
Domingo Cavallo is an Argentine economist and politician who served as economy minister of Argentina (1991–96, 2001). Cavallo was trained as a certified public accountant (1966) and earned master’s (1968)...
Chinese economist
Zhou Xiaochuan is a Chinese economist, banking executive, and government official who served as the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) from 2002 to 2018. Zhou was born in far northeastern China...
- abolitionism
- activism
- advertising
- air force
- anarchism
- army
- banking
- business
- church and state
- civil rights
- civil war
- colonialism
- communism
- coup d'etat
- crime
- criminology
- diplomacy
- economics
- espionage
- fascism
- first lady
- government
- history
- human rights
- independence
- inquisition
- intelligence
- journalism
- labour movement
- law
- marketing
- Marxism
- modeling
- nationalism
- navy
- Nobel Prize (all)
- Nobel Prize - Economics
- Nobel Prize - Peace
- oratory
- organized labour
- pacifism
- philanthropy
- piloting
- pioneer
- political science
- president
- prime minister
- publishing
- reform
- social movement
- social service
- socialism
- sociology
- temperance movement
- terrorism
- women's movement