Economist

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An economist is an individual who studies, develops, and applies theories and concepts from economics, and who writes about economic policy. Within this field of study there are many sub-fields, ranging from the broad philosophical theories to the focused study of minutiae within specific markets, macroeconomics analysis, microeconomics analysis or financial analysis, involving analytical methods and tools such as econometrics, statistics, economics computational models, financial economics, financial mathematics and mathematical economics. Adam Smith is perhaps the most famous economist, as the founder of modern economics.

Contents 1 In academia 2 Professions 3 United States 4 United Kingdom 5 Famous economists 5.1 Founding fathers 5.2 People who have made important contributions to economics 5.3 Politicians, statesmen and world leaders 6 References 7 See also

[edit] In academia

Most major universities have an economics faculty, school or department, where academic degrees are awarded in support of potential professional economists. However, many prominent economists come from a background in mathematics, engineering, business, law, sociology, or history.

The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is a prize awarded to economists each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. The Prize Winners are announced in October every year. They receive their awards (a prize amount, a gold medal and a diploma) on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. [1]

[edit] Professions

A professional working inside of one of many fields of economics or having an academic degree in this subject is an economist, and any person within any of these fields can properly claim to be one, although the broad range of matters coming under this designation makes it a practical impossibility for any individual to master all of them (this is the same as for almost all other fields of knowledge such as medicine or engineering). Economists are also employed in banking, finance, accountancy, commerce, marketing, and business administration.

Politicians often consult economists before enacting policy, and many statesmen have academic degrees in economics. However, politics and economics have not always meshed well. Peter G. Klein wrote:

Economists are not traditionally popular as policy advisors. Economics teaches that resources are limited, that choices made imply opportunities forgone, that our actions can have unintended consequences. This is typically not what government officials want to hear. When they propose an import tariff to help domestic manufacturers, we economists explain that this protection will come only at the expense of domestic consumers. When they suggest a minimum-wage law to raise the incomes of low-wage workers, we show that such a law hurts the very people it purports to help by forcing them out of work. On and on it goes. As each new generation of utopian reformers promises to create a better society, through government intervention, the economist stands athwart history, yelling "Remember the opportunity cost!" [2]

[edit] United States

According to the United States Department of Labor there were 13,000 economists in the US with a median salary of roughly $72,780 with the top ten percent earning more than US$ 129,170 annually.^[2] About 400 colleges and universities grant about 900 new Ph.D.s in economics each year. The type of academic degree, Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate degree had significant influence on an individuals job outlook and salary. While the overall expected job growth for economists remains below nation average, the demand those with a Doctorate, especially those employed in the corporate sector, is expected to increase at a considerably faster pace.^[3] Incomes were highest for those in the private sector, followed by the federal government with academia and high schools paying the lowest incomes. Median salaries ranged from $45,000 for those with a Bachelor to $85,000 for those with a Ph.D. in economics. A recent and continuous study by PayScale.com showed Economic consultants with a Ph.D. had the overall highest median income for any group making $116,250, the median salaries for an assistant professor was $63,500, for an associate professor it lay at $67,000 and $85,000 for a full professor. The overall median income for doctorates in academia was $75,000 compared to $125,000 in consulting and $87,000 in banking.^[1]

[edit] United Kingdom

The largest single professional grouping of economists in the UK are the more than 1000 members of the Government Economic Service, who work in 30 government departments and agencies.

[edit] Famous economists

[edit] Founding fathers

People who are considered to be the first economists for various schools and currents of thought in economics:

• Richard Cantillon
• Irving Fisher
• Milton Friedman
• Friedrich Hayek
• David Hume
• William Stanley Jevons
• John Maynard Keynes
• Karl Marx
• Carl Menger
• John Stuart Mill
• Franz Oppenheimer
• David Ricardo
• Jean-Baptiste Say
• Adam Smith

[edit] People who have made important contributions to economics

The following are some people who have made important contributions to economics:

Walter Adams George Akerlof Armen Alchian Kenneth Arrow Robert Barro Fischer Black Olivier Blanchard James Buchanan Edward Chamberlin Ronald Coase Antoine Augustin Cournot Rüdiger Dornbusch John Kenneth Galbraith Robert Giffen Trygve Haavelmo John Hicks Leonid Kantorovich Nikolai Kondratiev Anne Krueger

Paul Krugman Arthur Laffer Wassily Leontief Evsei Liberman Friedrich List Robert Lucas Jr. Thomas Malthus Harry Markowitz Alfred Marshall Ludwig von Mises Franco Modigliani Robert Mundell John Forbes Nash Douglass North Bertil Ohlin Vilfredo Pareto Sir William Petty Edmund Phelps Arthur Cecil Pigou Paul Craig Roberts

Joan Robinson Paul Samuelson Joseph Schumpeter Amartya Sen Myron Scholes Eugen Slutsky Karl Shell Robert Solow Hernando de Soto Piero Sraffa George Stigler Joseph Stiglitz Stanislav Strumilin Lawrence Summers Jan Tinbergen James Tobin Max Weber Muhammad Yunus Arnold Zellner [edit] Politicians, statesmen and world leaders The following are some notable politicians, statesmen, central bankers, entrepreneurs, journalists, world leaders, and other notable persons with an academic background in economics: Kofi Annan Leszek Balcerowicz Óscar Arias Dick Armey Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Steve Ballmer Ravi Batra Don Brash Ben Bernanke James Callaghan Michel Camdessus Aníbal Cavaco Silva Tansu Çiller Pat Cox Jacques Delors Lou Dobbs Wim Duisenberg Stanley Fischer   David D. Friedman Phil Gramm Alan Greenspan Dag Hammarskjöld Stephen Harper Sir Keith Joseph Jack Kemp Václav Klaus Horst Köhler Junichiro Koizumi Lawrence Kudlow Kenneth Lay Peter G. Peterson Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr. Romano Prodi Andrew Ryan António de Oliveira Salazar   Helmut Schmidt George Shultz Costas Simitis Manmohan Singh George Soros Thomas Sowell Alejandro Toledo Donald Trump Laura D'Andrea Tyson Paul Volcker Jude Wanniski Walter Williams Muhammad Yunus Viktor Yushchenko Joseph Yam Chi-kwong Ernesto Zedillo Steven Levitt [edit] References Robert Sobel The Worldly Economists (1980). ^ a b Pay Scale, US income of Economists. Retrieved on 2006-12-22. ^ US Bureau of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook ^ The Market for new PhD Economists 2002. Retrieved on 2006-09-11. [edit] See also List of economists Nobel Prize in Economics Chief economist Forensic economist