Economist

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This article is about the profession. For the news publication, see The Economist.

Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize in Economics winner.

Alan Greenspan, former Fed Reserve Chairman.

An economist is an individual who studies, develops, and applies theories and concepts from economics, and writes about economic policy. Within this field of study there are many sub-fields, ranging from the broad philosophical theories propounded by thinkers such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx to 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.

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). Politicians often consult economists before enacting policy, and many statesmen have academic degrees in economics. Economists are also employed in banking, finance, accountancy, commerce, marketing, and business administration.

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. In the United States, about 400 colleges and universities grant about 900 new Ph.D.s in economics each year.^[1] The median annunal income for an economist in the United States was US$ 72,780 in May 2004 with the top ten percent earning more than US$ 129,170.^[2]

Economics as a field of knowledge and an independent social science by its own right was born in the 18th century with Adam Smith, and since then it became a discipline with an increasing and definitive importance in modern societies.

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] Famous economists

[edit] Early thinkers in economics

• Aristotle
• Chanakya
• Plato

[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
• David Hume
• William Stanley Jevons
• John Maynard Keynes
• Arthur Laffer
• Thomas Malthus
• Karl Marx
• Carl Menger
• John Stuart Mill
• Franz Oppenheimer
• David Ricardo
• Jean-Baptiste Say
• Adam Smith
• Friedrich Hayek

[edit] People who have made important contributions to economics

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

[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:

[edit] References

• Robert Sobel The Worldly Economists (1980).

[edit] See also

• List of economists
• Nobel Prize in Economics
• Chief economist
• Forensic economist