The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Economics,
#2301
Subal Kumbhakar
#108613
Overall Influence
Subal C. Kumbhakar is an Indian born American economist. He is a Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at Binghamton University. He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa, 1997, Gothenburg University, Sweden. He is a fellow of Journal of Econometrics, distinguished author of Journal of Applied Econometrics, co-editor of the Social Science Citation Index journal Empirical Economics, coauthor of a highly cited book on Stochastic Frontier Analysis. He is associated with the University of Stavanger, Norway and Inland School of Business and Social Sciences, Lillehammer, Norway. He advises Oxera Consulting LLP Oxford, UK on regulatory performance measures.
Go to Profile#2302
Klaus M. Leisinger
#57670
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Klaus M. Leisinger is a social scientist and economist. He is founder and president of the Global Values Alliance in Basel. Until 2012 he was managing director and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Novartis Foundation in Basel, Switzerland.
Go to Profile#2303
Alan Hamlin
#62973
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Alan Patrick Hamlin is a British economist and political theorist. Hamlin attended Bristol Grammar School 1962-69 and earned a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Wales, followed by a DPhil at the University of York. Hamlin was appointed to a Lectureship in Economics at the University of Southampton in 1976 and was promoted to a Professorship in Economics at Southampton where he was also served as Head of the Department of Economics, Dean of Social Sciences, and Dean of Law Arts and Social Sciences. Hamlin was a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1989-90 and held visiting appointments in America and in Australia.
Go to Profile#2304
Pietro Veronesi
#80932
Overall Influence
Pietro Veronesi is the Chicago Board of Trade Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Additionally, he is a former director of the American Finance Association and co-editor of the Review of Financial Studies.
Go to Profile#2305
Paul Newbold
#109171
Overall Influence
#2306
Larry T. Wimmer
#70966
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (89 years)
Larry Turley Wimmer is the Warren and Wilson Dusenberry University Professor at Brigham Young University . He is a professor of economics who specializes in American economic history and the economics of aging.
Go to Profile#2307
Herman van Praag
#96346
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
Herman Meïr van Praag is a Dutch psychiatrist. He was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Groningen, Utrecht University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Maastricht University. Van Praag is considered the founder of biological psychiatry in the Netherlands. After his retirement he has written extensively on religiosity.
Go to Profile#2308
Sylvia Porter
#27085
Overall Influence
1913 - 1991 (78 years)
Sylvia Field Porter was an American economist, journalist and author. At the height of her career, her readership was greater than 40 million people. Early life Porter was born in Patchogue, New York, on Long Island as Sylvia Field Feldman to Louis and Rose Maisel Feldman. Originally majoring in English literature, she switched to economics and finance given the impact of the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It has been suggested that her fiancé, bank employee Reed Porter, was relying upon Sylvia to explain the complications of the worldwide financial panic. They were married in 1931.
Go to Profile#2309
Manuel Aguilar Arellano
#109243
Overall Influence
#2310
Leslie G. Godfrey
#94480
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Leslie George Godfrey is a British econometrician. The Breusch–Godfrey test is named after him and Trevor S. Breusch. He is an Emeritus Professor of Econometrics at the University of York. He is the author of "Misspecification tests in econometrics: the Lagrange multiplier principle and other approaches" and "Bootstrap Tests for Regression Models".
Go to Profile#2311
Thomas B. Reardon
#109260
Overall Influence
#2312
Wim Driehuis
#77172
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Wim Driehuis is a Dutch economist, Emeritus Professor Economics and Business at the University of Amsterdam. Biography Born in Utrecht, Driehuis received his BA in Economics in 1963 and his MA in Economics in 1967, both at the University of Amsterdam. In 1972 he received his PhD cum laude from the Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Go to Profile#2313
Marek Belka
#35229
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Marek Marian Belka is a Polish professor of economics and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Poland and Finance Minister of Poland in two governments. He is a former Director of the International Monetary Fund's European Department and former Head of Narodowy Bank Polski . He has served as a Member of the European Parliament since July 2019.
Go to Profile#2314
Yrjö Vartia
#88466
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Yrjö O. Vartia is the professor of econometrics in the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Career He received his B.S. in 1968 and his M.A. in 1971 from the University of Helsinki and Licentiate of Philosophy and Ph.D. from the University of Tampere, Finland in 1976. Associate professor of Statistics at the University of Helsinki in 1980. Professor of Statistics at the Helsinki School of Economics HSE in 1984 and professor of Economics at the University of Helsinki since 1987. He is student of Leo Törnqvist, the creator of the Törnqvist ind...
Go to Profile#2315
Roger D. Congleton
#77311
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Roger Douglas Congleton is an American economist. He serves as the BB&T Professor of Economics at West Virginia University and is the co-editor-in-chief of the journal Constitutional Political Economy.
Go to Profile#2316
Richard M. Steers
#109607
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
#2317
David P. Baron
#109666
Overall Influence
#2318
Vikas Mishra
#37632
Overall Influence
1924 - 2008 (84 years)
Dr Vikas Mishra was an Indian Economist and a vice-chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Haryana. He joined the university in the Department of Economics in 1962 after serving in the Delhi School of Economics & the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. With his M.A. in Economics from the University of Manchester, Dr Mishra completed his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and research under the guidance of Nobel laureate Sir William Arthur Lewis.
Go to Profile#2319
George Galster
#54495
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
George Charles Galster is the Clarence Hilberry Professor of Urban Affairs in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Education Galster received his B.A. in economics summa cum laude from Wittenberg University, his B.S. in organizational science, also summa cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University, and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#2320
Reinhard Busse
#70216
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Reinhard Busse is a German physician and health economist. He is a university professor at the Technical University of Berlin, where he has, since 2002, headed the Department of Healthcare Management at the Faculty of Economics and Management.
Go to Profile#2321
Zhang Peigang
#22912
Overall Influence
1913 - 2011 (98 years)
Zhang Peigang , also romanized as Chang Pei-kang, was a Chinese economist, considered a founder of development economics in the country. He was a founding professor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and served as Honorary Dean of the School of Economics. In 1992 the university established the Zhang Peigang Development Economics Prize in his honour.
Go to Profile#2322
Luc A. Laeven
#109921
Overall Influence
#2323
D. J. Malpani Commerce
#109944
Overall Influence
#2324
John Micklewright
#90142
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
John Micklewright is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Social Statistics at UCL Social Research Institute, University College London. Career Micklewright studied at the University of Exeter and then completed a PhD in Economics at the London School of Economics. He did post-doctoral work as a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. Before joining UCL, he was Professor of Social Statistics in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton, head of research in the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Professor of Economics at the European University Institute in Flore...
Go to Profile#2325
Charles Kennedy
#71767
Overall Influence
1923 - 1997 (74 years)
Charles Kennedy was an economist, often considered one of the finest theorists of his generation. He was born into a large family, the youngest of five sons; he was the son of George Kennedy, an architect, and grandson of the painter Charles Napier Kennedy. A gifted child, he was educated at Gordonstoun, and entered Balliol College, Oxford at the age of seventeen. His tutor there was Thomas Balogh. Within two years he had graduated with first-class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and was immediately recruited into Lord Cherwell's statistical research group for the duration of W...
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Ron C. Mittelhammer
#85395
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Ronald Carl Mittelhammer is an American economist at Washington State University. He received his Ph.D. from the Washington State University in 1978, with specialisms in econometrics and marketing. In 2008 he commenced consecutive three-year terms as President-Elect, President, and Past-President of the American Agricultural Economics Association.
Go to Profile#2327
Charles Albert Knox Lovell
#110059
Overall Influence
#2328
James McDonald
#71687
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
James B. McDonald is the Clayne L. Pope Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University, specializing in econometrics. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Utah State University in 1964; his M.S. in Mathematics from Utah State University in 1966; and his Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University in 1970.
Go to Profile#2329
Andrea Prat
#75593
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Andrea Prat is an Italian economist. He is the Richard Paul Richman Professor of Business and professor of economics at Columbia University. He first studied economics at the University of Turin and then obtained his PhD in 1997 at Stanford University under the supervision of Kenneth Arrow. Prat has also taught at the London School of Economics and at Tilburg University.
Go to Profile#2330
Francesco Locatelli
#110187
Overall Influence
#2331
Ellen McGrattan
#88386
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Ellen McGrattan is an American macroeconomist who is Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota and past director of the Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute, and consults for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Go to Profile#2332
Bruce Gilley
#30278
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Bruce Gilley is a Canadian–American professor of political science and director of the PhD program in Public Affairs and Policy at the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. He is the founder and President of the Oregon Association of Scholars, member of the Heterodox Academy and founding signatory of the Oregon Academic Faculty Pledge on Freedom. Gilley gained international acclaim but also a storm of criticism for his highly controversial peer-reviewed article The Case for Colonialism, published in an advance online edition of the scientific journal Third World Quarterly in 2017.
Go to Profile#2333
Homi Kharas
#56565
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Homi Kharas is a British economist who has been a senior fellow and deputy director for the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution since 2005. Early life and education Kharas gained his bachelor's degree from King's College, Cambridge in 1975. He gained his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1980.
Go to Profile#2334
Kyle Bagwell
#82227
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Kyle Bagwell is an American economics professor. He is known for contributions to industrial organization and international trade. Education Bagwell received a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in Mathematics, both from Southern Methodist University, in 1983; and a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University, in 1986, working under the supervision of Michael H. Riordan.
Go to Profile#2335
William H. Peterson
#59452
Overall Influence
1921 - 2012 (91 years)
William Herbert Peterson was an American economist who wrote on the insights of Ludwig von Mises through teaching, writing, and speaking on the relationship between free enterprise and human liberty.
Go to Profile#2336
Usha Haley
#17590
Overall Influence
Usha C. V. Haley is an American author and academic, currently W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair of International Business and Professor of Management at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University in the U.S. state of Kansas. She is also Director of the Center for International Business Advancement at Wichita State University and elected Chair of the independent World Trade Council of Wichita. Prior to this, she was at other universities including West Virginia University, Massey University in New Zealand and at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University. Haley is cr...
Go to Profile#2337
Marshall E. Blume
#83443
Overall Influence
1941 - 2019 (78 years)
Marshall Edward Blume was an American economist. Blume studied mathematics at Trinity College and pursued postgraduate study in finance at the University of Chicago, where he completed a master's degree and doctorate. Blume was chief editor of the Journal of Finance from 1977 to 1980, and also served as editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, The Journal of Portfolio Management, and The Journal of Fixed Income. He co-founded Prudent Management Associates in 1982. Blume taught at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for 44 years. While on the faculty, he created Wharton's Online Trading and Investment Simulator and the Wharton Securities Exchange.
Go to Profile#2338
Richard N. Goodwin
#4158
Overall Influence
1931 - 2018 (87 years)
Richard Naradof Goodwin was an American writer and presidential advisor. He was an aide and speechwriter to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was married to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin for 42 years until his death in 2018 after a short bout with cancer. He was 86.
Go to Profile#2339
J. Doyne Farmer
#97134
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
J. Doyne Farmer is an American complex systems scientist and entrepreneur with interests in chaos theory, complexity and econophysics. He is Baillie Gifford Professor of Complex Systems Science at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford University, where he is also director of the Complexity Economics programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. Additionally he is an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His current research is on complexity economics, focusing on systemic risk in financial markets and technological progress. D...
Go to Profile#2340
Eduard Bomhoff
#54343
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Eduard Jan Bomhoff is a Dutch economist and retired politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport for the Pim Fortuyn List in the Cabinet Balkenende I from 22 July 2002 until 16 October 2002. He is currently an economics professor at the Monash University Malaysia Campus in Kuala Lumpur.
Go to Profile#2341
Lee J. Alston
#81232
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Lee J. Alston is the Ostrom Chair, Professor of Economics and Law, and Director of the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. On August 6, 2014, Alston was appointed director of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington, from which he received his B.A. in 1973. His research has focused on institutions and contracts and their role in influencing rural land use in the US and Brazil. In 2012 Alston was awarded a Clio Can award by the Cliometric Soc...
Go to Profile#2342
Elsa Fornero
#77220
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Elsa Fornero is an Italian economist, university lecturer, and politician who served as Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the Monti Cabinet from November 2011 to April 2013. Early life and education Fornero was born in San Carlo Canavese, in the province of Turin, Piedmont, on 7 May 1948. Prior to becoming minister, she was professor of Political Economics at the School of Management and Economics of the University of Turin starting in 2000. She taught macroeconomics and the economics of savings, social security, and pension funds. Her scientific research focused on public and private...
Go to Profile#2343
Julian Bond
#1672
Overall Influence
1940 - 2015 (75 years)
Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee . In 1971, he co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as its first president for nearly a decade.
Go to Profile#2344
Stefan Schaltegger
#110712
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
#2345
Barbara Wolfe
#94659
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Barbara Wolfe is an economist and the Richard A. Easterlin Professor of Economics, Population Health Sciences, and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Wolfe is also a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Research on Poverty. She is a research associate at the NBER, and the Levy Institute of Bard College. She is also an emeritus fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics .
Go to Profile#2346
Geoffrey R. Denton
#67012
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (93 years)
Geoffrey R. Denton is a British economist. He served as Director of Wilton Park, and formerly as Reader in Economics at the University of Reading and Professor and head of economics at the College of Europe in Bruges. He was also Research Director of the Federal Trust for Education and Research from 1973 and Special Adviser to the House of Lords European Communities Committee. He was married to a Hungarian refugee who was a student of his in the 1960s. They were the parents of Nick Denton.
Go to Profile#2347
Stephen Broadberry
#52053
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Stephen Noel Broadberry FBA is a British economist and academic. He is Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford, and a professorial fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He has been editor of the Economic History Review, the Essays in Economic and Business History, and the European Review of Economic History. He is president of the Economic History Society and was president of the European Historical Economics Society. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2016. Broadberry received a B.A. in Economics and Economic History from the University of Warwick in 1978 and...
Go to Profile#2348
Richard C. Green
#80253
Overall Influence
1953 - 2015 (62 years)
Richard Carleton Green was an economist, specializing in financial economics. He was the Richard M. and Margaret S. Cyert Chair and Professor of Financial Economics at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, US. Richard Green had previously been the editor of the Journal of Finance and was the only economist who served as president for all the three leading scholarly societies for financial economics: the American Finance Association , the Western Finance Association , and the Society for Financial Studies .
Go to Profile#2349
Judith Chevalier
#79068
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Judith Chevalier is the William S. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Economics at Yale University. She is also a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a former co-editor of the American Economic Review and of the RAND Journal of Economics. In 1998, she was the first to receive the Elaine Bennett Research Prize.
Go to Profile#2350
Efraim Benmelech
#22505
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Efraim Benmelech is a financial economist. Benmelech is the Henry Bullock Professor of Finance and Real Estate at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the director of the Guthrie Center for real estate research and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research .
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