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,
#3001
Thierry Verdier
#137735
Overall Influence
#3002
Joanna Cygler
#71104
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Joanna Agnieszka Cygler is a Polish economist and professor of management at the Warsaw School of Economics. Career Cygler was born in Warsaw and graduated from Warsaw School of Economics in 1991. In 1999, she earned her Ph.D. in management in management for the thesis , for which she also received the Karol Adamiecki Award in 2000. In 2009, following her thesis Kooperencja przedsiębiorstw. Czynniki sektorowe i korporacyjne , she received her habilitation. It was published under the same title and recognized in the 9th edition of the best habilitation competition organized by the Committee of Organization and Management Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences .
Go to Profile#3003
Mark Flannery
#88042
Overall Influence
Mark Jeffrey Flannery is an American economist, currently the Bank of America Eminent Scholar Chair at Warrington School of Business, University of Florida and, from 2000 to 2005, was the Editor of the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.
Go to Profile#3004
Masahiro Kawai
#137863
Overall Influence
#3005
Martin J. Coaut. Gruber
#137998
Overall Influence
#3006
Daniel Orr
#79310
Overall Influence
1933 - 2012 (79 years)
Daniel Orr was an economist. He was a Princeton University Ph.D, and the retired economics chair at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a published author in the field of economics, especially in academic circles, and has worked for the United States Treasury Department. He became Trustee of Oberlin College in 1993.
Go to Profile#3007
Anatoly Aksakov
#87775
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Anatoly Gennadyevich Aksakov is a Russian politician and economist. He is a member of the Russian State Duma from the A Just Russia party. Early life and career After graduating from secondary school in 1975, Aksakov began studies at Moscow State University in the Economics Department in 1977. After graduating in 1983 as a qualified economist, Aksakov served as a Deputy in the State Council of the Chuvash Republic. In 1986 he completed post-graduate studies in economics at Moscow State University.
Go to Profile#3008
Cees Leeuwis
#138086
Overall Influence
#3009
Peter H. Lindert
#138119
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
#3010
Fayyad Abdel Moneim
#89883
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Fayyad Abdel Moneim is an Egyptian academic and economist who served as finance minister briefly from 7 May to 16 July 2013. Early life and education Moneim was born in 1957. He received a bachelor's degree in commerce in 1980. He holds a master's degree, which he received from Al Azhar University in 1993. He also holds a PhD, which he again received from Al Azhar University in Islamic finance in 1999. The title of his PhD thesis is "an evaluation of the economic performance of banks, with application to the Islamic banks in Egypt."
Go to Profile#3011
Estelle Bee Dagum
#90983
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Estela Bee Dagum is an Argentine and Canadian economist and statistician who was a professor "chiara fama" of statistical sciences at the University of Bologna. She is known for her research on time series analysis, and in particular for developing the X-11-ARIMA method of seasonal adjustment, which became widely used and is a predecessor to X-12-ARIMA and later methods.
Go to Profile#3012
David Daokui Li
#108249
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Li Daokui is a Chinese economist and the Mansfield Freeman Professor of Economics and director of the Center for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management , where he teaches courses on economic transition, corporate finance, international economics, and China's economy. In 2013, Li was appointed the founding dean of the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua.
Go to Profile#3013
Marc Van Audenrode
#111879
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Marc A. Van Audenrode is a Canadian econmoist who is managing principal at Analysis Group, the largest privately held economic consulting firm in the United States, and an adjunct professor at Université de Sherbrooke.
Go to Profile#3014
Thomas L. Johnston
#60836
Overall Influence
1927 - 2009 (82 years)
Thomas Lothian Johnston FRSE was a Scottish economist. He was professor of Economics at Heriot-Watt University in 1966–1976. He was the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1993–1996. In 1985 Johnston was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
Go to Profile#3015
Belverd Needles
#57633
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Belverd Needles is an American economist, currently the Ernst & Young Distinguished Professor of Accountancy at DePaul University. He holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Business Administration degrees from Texas Tech University.
Go to Profile#3016
Michael Heller
#39710
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Michael A. Heller is a Professor of Real Estate Law at Columbia Law School. He concentrates on property law. Heller coined the term "tragedy of the anticommons" while working as a law professor at University of Michigan Law School in a 1998 Harvard Law Review article, "The Tragedy of the Anticommons: Property in the Transition from Marx to Markets."
Go to Profile#3017
Richard F. Hartl
#138429
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#3018
Howard F. Chang
#73538
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Howard Fenghau Chang is an American legal academic and the Earle Hepburn Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Education Howard F. Chang graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1982 with an AB degree in government. In 1985, he received a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he studied economics and public policy. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School with a JD degree in 1987. He was the supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review from 1986 to 1987. He recei...
Go to Profile#3019
Philippe Naert
#38286
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Philippe Autor Naert is a Belgian organizational theorist, and Executive at several business schools and universities from INSEAD to the Antwerp Management School., known for his work on marketing decision modelling.
Go to Profile#3020
Michael Boskin
#116342
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Michael Jay Boskin is the T. M. Friedman Professor of Economics and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He also is chief executive officer and president of Boskin & Co., an economic consulting company.
Go to Profile#3021
Louise Fresco
#17744
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Louise Ottilie Fresco is a Dutch scientist and writer known for her work on globally sustainable food production. Career in academia Fresco has been the President of the Wageningen University & Research Executive Board since 1 July 2014. She is a professor at Wageningen University and a corresponding member of Belgium's Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences.
Go to Profile#3022
Diane Schanzenbach
#85752
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach is an American economist who studies the effects of policies aimed at alleviating child poverty, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program . She works at Northwestern University as Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at their School of Education and Social Policy. She is also the director of Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research and the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project, as well as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Go to Profile#3023
Gianni De Fraja
#85809
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Gianni De Fraja is a professor of economics at the University of Nottingham, England and a Research Fellow . He was born in Bologna, where he spent the first five years of his life, before moving to Bassano del Grappa and then on to Mestre, near Venice, where he lived until he was eighteen. He attended SSSUP college in Pisa from which he graduated in 1982. He then moved to a house near the Chianti Hills near Vagliagli where he took his doctorate at Siena with a thesis on Game Theory.
Go to Profile#3024
Alison L. Booth
#138617
Overall Influence
#3025
Alojzy Nowak
#54031
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Alojzy Zbigniew Nowak is a Polish economist. In 2020 he was elected Rector of the University of Warsaw. Life and education In 1984 he graduated with a master's degree from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics. In 1991 he earned his PhD in economic sciences at the University of Warsaw. He received tenure in economic sciences in 1995 at the same university. Between 1996 and 2002 he held a position of an associate professor. By the decision of President of Poland he received professor degree in 2002. He served two terms as a dean of the Faculty of Management of the University of Warsaw . In the y...
Go to Profile#3026
Wilfred J. Ethier
#138651
Overall Influence
#3027
Victoria Ivashina
#92377
Overall Influence
Victoria Ivashina is a Russian-American economist and Lovett-Learned Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School, where she has taught since 2006. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research .
Go to Profile#3028
George G. Kaufman
#138719
Overall Influence
#3029
Nicola Persico
#123140
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Nicola Giuseppe Persico is an Italian-American economist. He is the John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he directs the Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics & Management.
Go to Profile#3030
Dennis J.i Snower
#138911
Overall Influence
#3031
Almarin Phillips
#104079
Overall Influence
1925 - 2006 (81 years)
Almarin Phillips was an American economist specializing in industrial economics and professor emeritus of public policy, economics and law at University of Pennsylvania. Phillips joined the Penn faculty in 1963, teaching economic courses at the Wharton School and antitrust courses at the Law School. Additionally, he served as dean of the former School of Public and Urban Policy in the 1970s, and later chaired the faculty Senate. After retiring in 1991, Phillips served as chairman of the board of Econsult Corp., a Philadelphia economic-consulting firm. After five years, he stepped down as chairman, but continued as an academic affiliate of the firm.
Go to Profile#3032
Hilary Beckles
#15407
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Sir Hilary McDonald Beckles KA is a Barbadian historian. He is the current vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies and chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. Educated at the University of Hull in England, Beckles began his academic career at UWI, and was granted a personal professorship at the age of 37, becoming the youngest in the university's history. He was named pro-vice-chancellor and chairman of UWI's Board for Undergraduate Studies in 1998, and in 2002 was named principal of the university's Cave Hill campus. Although his focus has mainly been on Afro-Caribbean ...
Go to Profile#3033
Ong Hok Ham
#73177
Overall Influence
1933 - 2007 (74 years)
Ong Hok Ham was an eminent Chinese Indonesian historian considered one of the leading experts on Indonesian history during the 19th century Dutch colonial rule. His particular area of knowledge centered on events in Java during the period, and he authored a number of works dealing with the subject.
Go to Profile#3034
David Dorn
#120858
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
David Dorn is a Swiss economist and currently the UBS Professor of Globalization and Labor Markets at the University of Zurich. His research focuses on the interplay between globalization and labour markets. In 2014, his research was awarded the Excellence Award in Global Economic Affairs by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Go to Profile#3035
J. Joseph Mcdermott
#139239
Overall Influence
#3036
Oliver C. Mullins
#139321
Overall Influence
#3037
Luigi Guiso
#139350
Overall Influence
#3038
Michael D. Smith
#14847
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Michael D. Smith is an American academic who is the J. Erik Jonsson Professor of Information Technology and Marketing at the Heinz College of Carnegie Mellon University with joint-appointment at the Tepper School of Business.
Go to Profile#3039
Erdener Timur Kaynak
#139637
Overall Influence
#3040
Keith E. Maskus
#139822
Overall Influence
#3041
E. G. West
#73059
Overall Influence
1922 - 2001 (79 years)
Edwin George West was an economist and economic historian at Carleton University interested in the relationship between the state and the education sector. He applied public choice theory to state education and "he had a profound influence on both academic scholarship and education policy in Britain and abroad". The E.G. West Centre at Newcastle University is named in his honor.
Go to Profile#3042
Geert Bekaert
#68903
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Geert Bekaert is a Belgian economist. He is a professor at Columbia Business School and the managing editor of the Journal of Banking and Finance. Biography Bekaert received his B.A. from Ghent University and Ph.D. from Northwestern University under Robert J. Hodrick. He began his academic career at the Stanford Graduate School of Business before joining the faculty of Columbia Business School in 1999. He held the Leon G. Cooperman Professorship of Finance and Economics until 2019. Bekaert's research focused on international finance and foreign exchange market efficiency.
Go to Profile#3043
Obinna Onwujekwe
#116506
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Obinna Emmanuel Onwujekwe is a Nigerian medical doctor who serves as Professor of Health Economics and Policy and Pharmacoeconomics in the Departments of Health Administration & Management and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, based in University of Nigeria.
Go to Profile#3044
Justine Hastings
#66669
Overall Influence
Justine Hastings is an American economist, academic, and policy advisor. She is currently a vice president and chief of people-centered science at Amazon and an affiliate professor of economics at the University of Washington. Previously, she served as professor of economics and international and public affairs at Brown University, and as an associate professor of economics at Yale University. Her research focuses on combining economics and big data to solve social problems, spanning topics across education policy, retirement policy, household finance, marketing, competition, antitrust, and en...
Go to Profile#3045
Gavin Clydesdale Reid
#60789
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Gavin Clydesdale Reid is a Scottish economist and past President of the Scottish Economic Society . He was Head of Dundee Business School Abertay University and was Founding Director of the Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm in the School of Economics & Finance at the University of St Andrews. He is currently an honorary professor in the School of Economics & Finance at St Andrews University.
Go to Profile#3046
Manju Puri
#71731
Overall Influence
Manju Puri is an economist who currently works as the J. B. Fuqua Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She is an editor at the Review of Financial Studies and currently the director of the American Finance Association.
Go to Profile#3047
Derek W. Bunn
#140099
Overall Influence
#3048
J. David Cummins
#132548
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
John David Cummins is an American business economist, currently the Joseph E. Boettner Chair of Risk Management and Insurance at Temple University, formerly the Harry J. Loman Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and then also formerly President of American Risk and Insurance Association.
Go to Profile#3049
Irene Cetin
#140230
Overall Influence
#3050
Bruce D. Meyer
#140267
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
