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,
#2951
Werry Darta Taifur
#92080
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Werry Darta Taifur is an Indonesian economist and professor who is currently serving as the Rector of Andalas University. He was sworn into office by Minister of Education Mohammad Nuh on 21 November 2011.
Go to Profile#2952
Jeffrey Milyo
#36536
Overall Influence
Jeffrey Dennis Milyo is an American economist and professor of economics at the University of Missouri. He is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. One of his best-known studies is a 2005 one that he co-authored with Timothy Groseclose examining media bias. The study concluded that most major media outlets in the United States have a liberal bias, although its methodology has been criticized. He has also researched the political effects of campaign finance laws in the United States.
Go to Profile#2953
Joern Fischer
#135393
Overall Influence
#2954
Motohiro Yogo
#99811
Overall Influence
Motohiro Yogo is a Japanese American economist and a professor of economics at Princeton University. His research is on asset pricing, insurance, and household finance. Education Motohiro Yogo earned an A.B. in economics from Princeton University in 2000 and a Ph.D in economics from Harvard University In 2004.
Go to Profile#2955
Guglielmo Maria Caporale
#135477
Overall Influence
#2956
José Luis Espert
#91366
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
José Luis Espert is an Argentine economist and politician. He is known to be one of the strongest supporters of economic liberalism in Argentina. Since the 2021 Argentine legislative election, he has been a National Deputy elected in Buenos Aires Province for the Avanza Libertad coalition.
Go to Profile#2957
Thomas Nossiter
#52451
Overall Influence
1937 - 2004 (67 years)
Thomas Johnson Nossiter was Professor of Government at the London School of Economics from 1989 until 1994. Early life Nossiter was the son of Alfred and Margaret Nossiter. He was educated at Stockton Grammar School.
Go to Profile#2958
Mehmet Altan
#33806
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Mehmet Hasan Altan is a Turkish academic economist, journalist, and author of over 25 books. Describing himself as a "Marxist-liberal", he is the originator of the term "Second Republic", arguing that Turkey needs to reconstitute its republic as a true democracy. He is a strong supporter of the Accession of Turkey to the European Union.
Go to Profile#2959
Matthias Sutter
#135626
Overall Influence
#2960
Steve Bond
#133917
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Steve Bond is a British economist at Nuffield College, Oxford, Oxford, specialising in applied microeconometrics, particularly the investment and financial behaviour of firms. Together with Manuel Arellano, he developed the Arellano–Bond estimator, a widely used generalized method of moments estimator for panel data. Research Papers in Economics lists the paper as the most cited article ever in economics.
Go to Profile#2961
Mel Watkins
#30237
Overall Influence
1932 - 2020 (88 years)
Melville Henry Watkins was a Canadian political economist and activist and professor emeritus of economics and political science at the University of Toronto. He was a founder and co-leader with James Laxer of the Waffle, a left-wing political formation within the New Democratic Party that advocated an "independent socialist Canada" and Canadian nationalism. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2019.
Go to Profile#2962
Randolph Preston Mcafee
#135722
Overall Influence
#2963
Thomas Dee
#82078
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Thomas S. Dee is an American economist and the Barnett Family Professor of Education at Stanford University, where he also directs the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities. Biography Thomas Dee earned a B.A. in economics with a focus on public policy from Swarthmore College in 1990, followed by an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland in 1994 and 1997. After his graduation, Dee worked as an assistant professor of economics at the Georgia Institute of Technology and later also at Swarthmore College . There, he was promoted in 2005 to the position of associate professor and given the direction of the college's public policy programme.
Go to Profile#2964
Claudio Demattè
#78792
Overall Influence
1942 - 2004 (62 years)
Claudio Demattè was an Italian economist and founder of SDA Bocconi. He was also president of RAI and chairman of Ferrovie dello Stato. Biography Claudio Demattè was born in Trento on 4 March 1942. He graduated in economics from Bocconi University under the guide of Giordano Dell'Amore in 1966 and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1970. He spent most of his career at Bocconi University and focused on strategic management, internationalization strategy, finance and the television industry. In 1971 he founded SDA Bocconi and was its Director from 1984 to 1989 and then Chairman from 1996 to 2002.
Go to Profile#2965
Dan A. Black
#53574
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Dan A. Black is an American economist and professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, where he is also the deputy dean and director of Ph.D. programs. He is also the project director of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center. Before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago, he taught at the University of Kentucky and Syracuse University.
Go to Profile#2966
Charles Knickerbocker Harley
#86648
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Charles Knickerbocker Harley is an academic economic historian who has written on a wide range of topics including the British industrial revolution, the late nineteenth century international economy, and the impact of technological change. He is a practitioner of the New Economic History.
Go to Profile#2967
Wiji Arulampalam
#128693
Overall Influence
Sowmya Wijayambal Arulampalam, known as Wiji Arulampalam, is an economist and professor at the department of economics in the University of Warwick. Arulampalam is the 152nd most cited female economist in the world according to the RePEc/IDEAS ranking.
Go to Profile#2968
Alois Stutzer
#136283
Overall Influence
#2969
René Maury
#92019
Overall Influence
1928 - 2014 (86 years)
René Maury , was a French economist, lawyer and historian. An economics graduate with a doctorate in law and a graduate of Harvard Business School, Maury was professor of economics at the University of Montpellier, Visiting Professor at the Keio Business School in Tokyo, and professor at the University of Limerick. He is the author of about twenty books.
Go to Profile#2970
Michael Gerald Pollitt
#136410
Overall Influence
#2971
William Spriggs
#83323
Overall Influence
1955 - 2023 (68 years)
William Edward Spriggs was an American economist who was a professor of economics at Howard University, chief economist for the AFL-CIO, and Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2012.
Go to Profile#2972
Susan Helper
#71692
Overall Influence
Susan Helper is an American economist. She is the Frank Tracy Carlton Professor of Economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Education Helper received a Bachelors of Arts in Economics, Government, and Spanish from Oberlin College and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.
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John Johnston
#63297
Overall Influence
1923 - 2003 (80 years)
John "Jack" Johnston was a British econometrician. He spent most of his career at the University of Manchester, and later University of California, Irvine. Johnston is particularly known for authoring Econometric Methods , one of the earliest and most popular textbooks in econometrics, the most recent editions being co-authored with John DiNardo.
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Ingemar Ståhl
#92302
Overall Influence
1938 - 2014 (76 years)
Ingemar Ståhl was a Swedish economist and an economics professor from Lund University. Life Ståhl was born on June 2, 1938, in Stockholm, Sweden. He graduated, with a bachelor degree, in 1958 in the University of Stockholm. He earned his Licentiate of Philosophy in 1965 at the Lund University.
Go to Profile#2975
Richard M. Goodwin
#136621
Overall Influence
#2976
Peter Martin
#33665
Overall Influence
Peter Martin is an Australian economist, journalist and commentator. Career Raised in Adelaide, Martin studied Economics at Flinders University, where he earned a BEc. Martin spent a period of time employed by the Commonwealth Treasury Department. In 2019 he was appointed a visiting fellow at the Australian National University's Crawford School of Public Policy.
Go to Profile#2977
Edward J. Malecki
#136697
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
#2978
Kenneth J. Singleton
#136706
Overall Influence
#2979
Murray Leibbrandt
#129645
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Murray Leibbrandt is professor, NRF Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research - and Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. He is a South African academic economist studying labour markets, trends in inequality, and poverty in South Africa. He is a fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics.
Go to Profile#2980
Constance E. Helfat
#136770
Overall Influence
#2981
Eero Vaara
#136796
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
#2982
Ilya Segal
#75868
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Ilya R. Segal is an economist who is currently Roy and Betty Anderson Professor in the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His research focuses on microeconomic theory, particularly contract theory, mechanism design and auction design. His research interests include the design of competition policy, property rights, contracts, auctions, and other economic mechanisms. Segal has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and member of the Toulouse Network for Information Technology. His other awards include Compass Lexecon prize...
Go to Profile#2983
Giuseppe Bertola
#136955
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
#2984
David Charles Colander
#137017
Overall Influence
#2985
Eric Alfred Hirst
#137063
Overall Influence
#2986
Barry Goodwin
#107221
Overall Influence
Barry Kent Goodwin is an American economist, currently the Wm Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University. Career Barry Goodwin is the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor and Graduate Alumni Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Economics.
Go to Profile#2987
Malcolm Knight
#69604
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Malcolm D. Knight is a Canadian economist, policymaker and banker. He is currently Visiting Professor of Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation. From 2008 to 2012, Knight was Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank Group where he was responsible for developing and coordinating the bank's global approach to issues in financial regulation, supervision, and financial stability. He served as general manager of the Bank for International Settlements from 2003 to 2008 and as Senior Deputy Governor of t...
Go to Profile#2988
Duncan Ironmonger
#102286
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Duncan Standon Ironmonger is an Australian household economist. He is an Honorary Principal Fellow and Associate Professor of the Households Research Unit, Department of Economics, University of Melbourne.
Go to Profile#2989
C. E. V. Leser
#129572
Overall Influence
1915 - 1998 (83 years)
Conrad Emanuel Victor Leser was a German Econometrician. Leser was born in Heidelberg, Germany. He studied at the University of Zurich, Switzerland from which he held a DPhil. After being forced to leave Germany because of his non-Aryan status he gained an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. At the same time he frequented Speakers' Corner near Marble Arch to improve his English. Because of his German origins, Leser was interned in Canada from 1940 to 1941.
Go to Profile#2990
Sergey Glazyev
#60958
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Sergey Yurievich Glazyev is a Russian politician and economist, member of the National Financial Council of the Bank of Russia, and, since 2008, a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Glazyev was minister of Foreign Economic Relations in Boris Yeltsin's cabinet from 1992 to 1993, a member of the State Duma from 1993 to 2007, one of the leaders of the electoral block Rodina from 2003 to 2004, a candidate for the Presidency of the Russian Federation in 2004, and advisor to the president of the Russian Federation on regional economic integration from 2012 to 2019. As of 2021, he is t...
Go to Profile#2991
Robert G. Frank
#58661
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Robert G. Frank is an American academic administrator and faculty member. He was appointed as the fifth dean of the College of Health Related Professions at the University of Florida in 1995. The name of the college changed to the College of Public Health and Health Professions while he was dean. In 2007, he was appointed as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Kent State University. He then served as the 21st President of the University of New Mexico from 2012 to 2017.
Go to Profile#2992
Leonard Green
#137255
Overall Influence
#2993
Bennett Harrison
#76686
Overall Influence
1942 - 1999 (57 years)
Bennett Harrison was a leading radical political economist, writer, musician, songwriter. Among his academic appointments was professor of political economy at MIT, Boston. Harrison held posts at Harvard University, New School for Social Research, and Carnegie Mellon University. Harrison taught in universities in Italy and Japan.
Go to Profile#2994
L. Randall Wray
#137300
Overall Influence
#2995
Dimitri Vayanos
#110115
Overall Influence
Dimitri Vayanos, FBA, is an economist and academic. Since 2004, he has been professor of finance at the London School of Economics. Education Vayanos graduated with a Diplôme d'Ingénieur from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1988, and then completed his doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; his PhD was awarded in 1993 with a thesis entitled "Three essays in microeconomic theory"; his doctoral adviser was Jean Tirole.
Go to Profile#2996
Jean-Paul Faguet
#87506
Overall Influence
Jean-Paul Faguet is Professor of the Political Economy of Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author or editor of five books and many academic and news articles, including Is Decentralization Good for Development? Perspectives from Academics and Policy Makers, and Decentralization and Popular Democracy: Governance from Below in Bolivia, which won the Political Science Association’s W.J.M. Mackenzie award for best political science book of 2012. He has advised the governments of numerous developing countries, as well as the World Bank, Inter-American Develop...
Go to Profile#2997
Rudy Aernoudt
#60538
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Rudy Aernoudt is a Belgian professor, writer, politician, economist and philosopher, born in Torhout. He was many times Chief of staff of the Ministers of economy and innovation both in Flanders and in Wallonia, of the Belgian Minister of economics and scientific policy and of the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Henri Malosse. He is the only person to serve as Head of Cabinet at the European, Belgian, Walloon and Flemish levels. He is professor of corporate finance at the Universities of Ghent and Nancy and Professor of Economics, Monetary and Geopolitical Environment...
Go to Profile#2998
Robert Nelson
#51660
Overall Influence
1944 - 2018 (74 years)
Robert Henry Nelson was an American economist who was professor of environmental policy in the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and a senior fellow of the Independent Institute. He authored over 100 journal articles and edited book chapters, as well as nine books. Nelson was a nationally recognized authority in areas including the management of public land and zoning in the United States, but is best known for his books about the relationship between economics, environmentalism, and Christianity.
Go to Profile#2999
Zvi Galor
#37871
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Dr. Zvi Galor , born in 1939, is an Israeli expert on cooperatives. Biography Born in 1939 in Kfar Vitkin, Zvi Galor earned his bachelor's degree from Tel Aviv University in 1966. In 1987 he obtained his master's degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with honors, and in 2017, at the age of 78, received his doctoral degree from Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan. From 1980 to 2002, Galor served as the pedagogical director of the English and French internships at the International Institute for Labour, Development and Cooperative Studies in Tel Aviv , which in 1994 became part of the International Institute of the Histadrut.
Go to Profile#3000
Suyanto
#64434
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Suyanto is a professor and technocrat from Indonesia. He had been a rector of Yogyakarta State University and Director General for Management of Primary and Secondary Education in Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. He is also known as a writer and speaker in education. His current positions are as a Vice Chairman of Majelis Pendidikan Tinggi Pimpinan Pusat Muhammadiyah and Chairman of Alumni Association of Yogyakarta State University.
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