Gary Becker
Gary Becker
Gary Stanley Becker was an American economist and a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago. Described as “the most important social scientist in the past 50 years” by the New York Times, Becker was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992 and received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTeacher
Date of Birth2 December 1930
CountryUnited States of America
Gary Becker quotes about
punishment economics type
Fines are preferable to imprisonment and other types of punishment because they are more efficient. With a fine, the punishment to offenders is also revenue to the State.
analysis assumes behavior conceive consistent maximize welfare whether
The analysis assumes that individuals maximize welfare as they conceive it, whether they be selfish, altruistic, loyal, spiteful, or masochistic. Their behavior is forward-looking, and it is also consistent over time.
amount created crime crime-and-criminals determined economic environment including public social training
The amount of crime is determined not only by the rationality and preferences of would-be criminals, but also by the economic and social environment created by public policies, including expenditures on police, punishments for different crimes, and opportunities for employment, schooling, and training programs.
limited-time fundamentals constraints
The most fundamental constraint is limited time
past other-cultures trying
The Treatise tries to analyze not only modern Western families, but also those in other cultures and the changes in family structure during the past several centuries.
marriage children fighting
Why in almost all societies have married women specialized in bearing and rearing children and in certain agricultural activities, whereas married men have done most of the fighting and market work?
chinese stronger accumulation
A stronger yuan could lead to greater Chinese asset accumulation in the U.S. and elsewhere.
men effort different
My work on human capital began with an effort to calculate both private and social rates of return to men, women, blacks, and other groups from investments in different levels of education.
commitment years long
I argued last year on my shared blog that selling the right to immigrate would be the best approach to legal immigration. Among other benefits, the revenue from immigrants' payments could reduce taxes. Paying for the right to immigrate would also negate the argument that immigrants get a free ride when they gain health care and other benefits. Moreover, making immigrants pay would attract the type of immigrants who came much earlier in American history: young men and women who are reasonably skilled and want to make a long-term commitment to the United States.
motivation criminals different
I was not sympathetic to the assumption that criminals had radically different motivations from everyone else.
fundamentals different limited-time
Different constraints are decisive for different situations, but the most fundamental constraint is limited time.
yield interesting analysis
Still, intuitive assumptions about behavior is only the starting point of systematic analysis, for alone they do not yield many interesting implications.
training analysis cost
Human capital analysis starts with the assumption that individuals decide on their education, training, medical care, and other additions to knowledge and health by weighing the benefits and costs. Benefits include cultural and other non-monetary gains along with improvement in earnings and occupations, while costs usually depend mainly on the foregone value of the time spent on these investments.
art economy
Economy is the art of making the most of life.