George Akerlof
George Akerlof
George Arthur Akerlofis an American economist who is University Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Koshland Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He won the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth17 June 1940
CountryUnited States of America
empirical intention theory
The whole intention of empirical economics is to force theory down to Earth.
chief executives incentive perverse raise stock wants
When you give chief executives too much compensation in stock options, they concentrate too much on the stock price, and there is a perverse incentive to raise the stock price, particularly when the chief executive wants to exercise his own options.
The only way we are going to ameliorate pressing social needs is through public intervention.
failure major markets
The failure of credit markets is one of the major reasons for underdevelopment.
capture market models prior rarely specific theorists
Prior to the early 1960s, economic theorists rarely constructed models customized to capture unique institutions or specific market characteristics.
My brother Carl became a physicist; I became an economist.
concerned guess since
I've always been a macroeconomist. That's what I teach. And I guess that's what I've been concerned with ever since I've been very young.
accurate good regarding
I would never have been a good reporter because I am not accurate regarding facts.
focusing
I think what Bob Shiller and I are doing is we're focusing on macroeconomics and the role of psychology in macroeconomics.
classical hated lack sacked saw weaknesses
In the late 1960s, the New Classical economists saw the same weaknesses in the microfoundations of macroeconomics that have motivated me. They hated its lack of rigor. And they sacked it.
aggregate business caused classical cycle decline declining employment exceed holding leaves mistakenly periods wages workers
In New Classical theory, periods of declining employment - business cycle downturns - may be caused by an unexpected decline in aggregate demand, which leaves workers mistakenly holding out for nominal wages that exceed the new market-clearing level.
chemist yale
My father was a chemist on the Yale faculty, my mother a housewife.
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My mother, whose interest in chemistry was rather minimal, nevertheless went to graduate school in the subject and married my father, for whom it was as important as life itself.
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My Swedish grandmother was the daughter of a dairy farmer who lived near Hedemora. My Swedish grandfather worked as a clerk for the Swedish railways in the Stockholm station.