Saturday, December 31, 2016

Economists who passed away in 2016

These (below) are the ones I remember, but there are certainly more. Here, with links to obituaries: Karl Case, Aldo Ferrer, Lloyd Shapley, Thomas Schelling, Charles L. Schultz, Lester Thurrow, Robert Tollison. The only one I met was Ferrer, in a few conferences in Argentina and Brazil. Two "Nobel" (Central Bank of Sweden) Prize winners among the departed. Interesting that Shapley said about his prize that: "I consider myself a mathematician and the award is for economics. I never, never in my life took a course in economics." So I'm not sure he should be on this list (or there should be a prize like that one). Of the non-economists discussed in this blog, the most prominent loss in 2016 was the historian William McNeill. He is one of the authors from other social sciences that I suggest, like say Jared Diamond or David Graeber, that use the surplus approach analytical framework, more akin to old classical political economy than modern marginalist (neoclassical) economics. And Keynes is still dead, 70 years ago this year, but there is always hope for an intellectual revival.

PS: Sad addendum, Tony Atkinson passed away.

1 comment:

  1. Met Schelling a couple of times back in the 80s. Great guy. And one of the few game theoreticians that actually applied the theory in a relevant way. Wish more of them were like him ...

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