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,
#3101
Shaun Hargreaves Heap
#103180
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Shaun Hargreaves Heap is a professor of political economy at King's College, London. He is an expert on game theory, behavioural economics, and macroeconomic policy. Biography Hargreaves Heap was an undergraduate at Oxford University and completed his PhD at UC Berkeley.
Go to Profile#3102
Barry Hirsch
#135706
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Barry T. Hirsch is an American economist and the W.J. Usery Chair of the American Workplace at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies of Georgia State University. Hirsch is one of the leading economists on the subject of industrial relations in the United States.
Go to Profile#3103
Helmut Haussmann
#70266
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Helmut Haussmann is a German academic and politician. He served as minister of economy from 1988 to 1991. Early life and education Haussmann was born in Tübingen on 18 May 1943. He holds a degree in economics and social sciences from the University of Tübingen and from the University of Hamburg. He received a PhD in business management from University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in 1976.
Go to Profile#3104
John C. (john Carroll) Williams
#142437
Overall Influence
#3105
Klaus Wälde
#63526
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Klaus Wälde is a German economist and Professor of Economics at the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz. He is also an extramural fellow at the Université catholique de Louvain and a fellow of the CESifo network. Previously, he was Professor of Economics at the Universities of Dresden, Würzburg and Glasgow. He also worked for the World Bank and for the European Commission.
Go to Profile#3106
Bela Michalopoulos Constantine Balassa
#142547
Overall Influence
#3107
Samuel Tombs
#129446
Overall Influence
Samuel Tombs is a British economist. He is the Chief U.K. Economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, an economic research firm located in Newcastle, England, with an office in White Plains, New York After graduating from Oxford University with a BA in History and Economics and an MSc in Economics Samuel began working as a U.K. Economist at Capital Economics, a position he held for six years. During this time, Samuel won the Society of Business Economics' prestigious Rybczynski Prize for an article on quantitative easing in the UK. In 2015, Samuel joined, Pantheon Macroeconomics, as Chief U.K. Eco...
Go to Profile#3108
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani
#72635
Overall Influence
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani is a professor of economics at Virginia Tech, and a visiting fellow at the Middle East Youth Initiative at the Wolfensohn Center for Development housed in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. His expertise and research focus is in economics, demographic economics, energy economics, and the economics of Iran and of the larger Middle East.
Go to Profile#3109
Paschalis Alexandridis
#142593
Overall Influence
#3110
Fabio Canova
#142678
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#3111
Ann Fetter Friedlaender
#84393
Overall Influence
1938 - 1992 (54 years)
Ann Fetter Friedlaender was a noted American economist. Friedlaender held appointments in two MIT departments as Professor of Civil Engineering and Economics for the class of 1941. Dr Friedlaender was seen as an authority in the field of public finance, with a speciality in transportation studies. The first woman to head one of MIT's five schools, she served as Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science from 1984 to 1990.
Go to Profile#3112
Arild Angelsen
#142692
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#3113
Jan Douwe Van Der Ploeg
#142727
Overall Influence
#3114
William A. Masters
#116855
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
William Alan Masters is an American economist, teaching and conducting research on agricultural economics and food policy in the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, where he also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Economics.
Go to Profile#3115
Devesh Kapur
#42112
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Devesh Kapur is the Director of Asia Programs and Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies . Formerly, he was the director at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, Madan Lal Sobti Associate Professor for the Study of Contemporary India, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development. He is also a monthly contributor to Business Standard, an Indian business news daily, and an occasional contributor to Project Syndi...
Go to Profile#3116
Clemens Puppe
#123643
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Clemens Dieter Puppe is a German economist. He is known for his contributions to individual and collective decision theory . Clemens Puppe is Professor at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and co-director of the Institute of Economics .
Go to Profile#3117
Gennadi Henkin
#92473
Overall Influence
1942 - 2016 (74 years)
Gennadi Markovich Henkin was a Russian mathematician and mathematical economist. Henkin studied at Moscow State University, where he received his doctorate in 1967 and habilitated in 1973 . From 1973 he was a senior scientist at the Central Economic Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1991 he was a professor at the Pierre et Marie Curie University .
Go to Profile#3118
Kevin M. Dowd
#143024
Overall Influence
#3119
Ronald Ferguson
#36135
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Ronald F. Ferguson in Cleveland, Ohio is an economist who researches factors that affect educational achievement. Major themes in his work include the race-related achievement gap in the United States and how to improve schools and identify effective teachers.
Go to Profile#3120
Dirk Bergemann
#100492
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Dirk Bergemann is the Douglass & Marion Campbell Professor of Economics and Computer Science at Yale University. He received his Vordiplom in economics at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1989, and both his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and 1993, respectively.
Go to Profile#3121
Gilat Levy
#107760
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Gilat Levy is an economist, researcher and council member. She has previously worked as a lecturer at Tel Aviv University at the Berglas School of Economics. Levy also held a role at Princeton as a Visiting Fellow prior to her arrival at the London School of Economics in 2008 as a full-time professor.
Go to Profile#3122
Henry G. Overman
#143555
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
#3123
Victor Fleischer
#71166
Overall Influence
Victor Fleischer is a professor of law at University of California, Irvine School of Law known for raising awareness of the carried interest tax loophole. Biography Fleischer grew up in Buffalo, New York, the son of now retired academics, and earned a B.A. from Columbia College in 1993 and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1996. He worked at Davis Polk & Wardwell and clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Ninth Circuit before entering academia in 2001. He taught at the UCLA School of Law, University of Illinois College of Law, University of Colorado Law School, the U...
Go to Profile#3124
Malcolm C. Sawyer
#143647
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
#3125
Jason Potts
#141593
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Jason Potts is a New Zealand-born academic economist. His work focuses on the theoretical development of evolutionary economics using complex systems theory. His current research is on the role of creative industries in innovation-driven economic growth and development. He is also a leading researcher on the economics of blockchains and is currently the Director of the Blockchain Innovation Hub, housed at RMIT University. Building on the work of Elinor Ostrom, Potts has developed the concept of the innovation commons. Potts received his B.Com from the University of Otago, NZ, , and his PhD , from Lincoln University, New Zealand .
Go to Profile#3126
Umberto Capitanio
#143722
Overall Influence
#3127
Barbara Petrongolo
#126072
Overall Influence
Barbara Petrongolo is an Italian economist, professor, researcher, and writer. She is currently a professor at Queen Mary University of London, Director of the Labour Economics Programme at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, and Co-editor of the Economic Journal which is world renowned for being one of the founding economic journals. Petrongolo previously worked at the London School of Economics, the Paris School of Economics and the Universidad Carlos III . Petrongolo's economic research focuses...
Go to Profile#3128
Sanford M. Jacoby
#80444
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Sanford M. Jacoby is an American economic historian and labor economist, and Distinguished Research Professor of Management, History, and Public Policy at University of California, Los Angeles. He is known for his studies of the transformation of work in American industry, corporate governance, Japanese management, and welfare capitalism.
Go to Profile#3129
Jean-jaskold Gabszewicz
#143854
Overall Influence
#3130
David E. Weinstein
#82522
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
David E. Weinstein II is an American economist. Since 1999, he has served as the Carl S. Shoup Professor of Japanese Economy at Columbia University. Before teaching at Columbia, Weinstein taught at University of Michigan and Harvard University. He also served on the Council of Economic Advisers from 1989 to 1990.
Go to Profile#3131
Enno Bahrs
#61756
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Enno Bahrs is an agricultural scientist and economist, and tax expert, at the University of Hohenheim and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Biodiversity and Genetic Resources of the German Federal Republic.
Go to Profile#3132
Bert Scholtens
#143993
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#3133
Gangan Prathap
#144043
Overall Influence
#3134
Catherine Kling
#120389
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Catherine L. Kling is an American economist, currently a Tisch University Professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and Faculty Director at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University. In 2015, Kling was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences. Kling has conducted research in the areas of environmental policy design and the valuation of environmental goods.
Go to Profile#3135
Louis G. Putterman
#144091
Overall Influence
#3136
Mykola Azarov
#34303
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Mykola Yanovych Azarov is a Ukrainian politician who was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 11 March 2010 to 27 January 2014. He was the First Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2006 to 2007. Azarov also served ex officio as an acting Prime Minister in the First Yanukovych Government when Viktor Yanukovych ran for president at first and then upon the resignation of his government.
Go to Profile#3137
Wolfgang Wessels
#47913
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Wolfgang Theodor Wessels is a German political scientist. He holds the Jean Monnet Chair ad personam in political science, is a retired professor at the University of Cologne, and the head of the Centre for Turkey and European Studies at the University of Cologne.
Go to Profile#3138
Eduardo M. Ochoa
#53570
Overall Influence
Eduardo M. Ochoa is an Argentinean-American economist and academic administrator who served as the president of California State University, Monterey Bay, from 2012 to 2022. Ochoa was the assistant secretary of education for postsecondary education during the Obama administration from 2010 to 2012.
Go to Profile#3139
Dimitris N. Chorafas
#144146
Overall Influence
#3140
Jeffrey Brown
#85998
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Jeffrey Robert Brown is the dean of the Gies College of Business of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously he was the William G. Karnes Professor in the Department of Finance and the Director of the Center for Business and Public Policy. He serves as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and as Associate Director of the NBER Retirement Research Center. Since 2009 he has served as a Trustee for TIAA, the operating company of TIAA-CREF. From October 2006 through September 2008, he served as a member of the Social Security Advisory Board. He served as a Senior Economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 2001 to 2002.
Go to Profile#3141
Prema‐chandra Athukorala
#144181
Overall Influence
#3142
W. Steven Barnett
#121219
Overall Influence
W. Steven Barnett is a U.S. American education economist who currently serves as a Board of Governors Professor at Rutgers University, where - being one of its founders - he also directs the National Institute for Early Education Research . He is one of the world's leading scholars on early child development and the economics of pre-schools.
Go to Profile#3143
Emmanuelle Auriol
#96046
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Emmanuelle Auriol is a French economist. She is chair of the Women in Economics Committee. Career Auriol is an IDEI researcher, a member of the Toulouse School of Economics and professor of economics at the University of Aix-Marseille and Toulouse I . She is mainly devoted to the study of the regulation and organization theory, including industrial organization and the economics of development.
Go to Profile#3144
Pierre Veltz
#26471
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Pierre Veltz is a French academic. Veltz holds an engineering degree from École Polytechnique and a PhD in social sciences from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. After beginning his career as an urban planner, he went into academic life and consulting. He founded and headed LATTS, an interdisciplinary research group, at the crossroads of technical and sociological research. From 1981 to 1991, he was the Dean of Research at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, one of the leading French Grandes écoles. From 1999 to 2004, he was the Director of this School. He also chaired Par...
Go to Profile#3145
Bernard Michael Gilroy
#117361
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Bernard Michael Gilroy is an American economist and full professor of international economics and macroeconomics at the University of Paderborn, Germany. Short biography Bernard Michael Gilroy attended Roselle Park Elementary School in New Jersey, USA from 1961 to 1970 before attending Roselle Park High School until 1974.
Go to Profile#3146
Kevin Hassett
#98085
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Kevin Allen Hassett is an American economist who is a former Senior Advisor and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. He has written several books and coauthored Dow 36,000, published in 1999, which argued that the stock market was about to have a massive swing upward. Shortly thereafter, the dot-com bubble burst, causing a massive decline in stock market prices, though the Dow was soon to recover. It finally did reach 36,000 as the Covid pandemic receded in late 2021.
Go to Profile#3147
Douglas W. Mitchell
#108404
Overall Influence
1953 - 2020 (67 years)
Douglas W. "Doug" Mitchell was an American economist and polymath who made significant contributions in a wide variety of areas in economics and finance as well as in statistics and mathematics . Academic background Mitchell earned a bachelor of science in economics from Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. from Princeton University . He was a faculty member in the economics departments of Temple University, the University of Texas-Austin, and West Virginia University. He retired as a full professor from West Virginia University in 2003, at the age of 49, to devote himself more fully to wide-ranging c...
Go to Profile#3148
Roberta Rabellotti
#59672
Overall Influence
Roberta Rabellotti is an Italian professor of economics at the Department of Business and Management at Aalborg University. Furthermore, Rabellotti is employed as a professor of economics at the University of Pavia.
Go to Profile#3149
Robert P. Flood
#144642
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
#3150
Marcella Alsan
#26765
Overall Influence
Marcella Alsan is an infectious disease physician and an applied microeconomist studying health inequality. She is currently a professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and was previously an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University. She uses randomized evaluations and historical public health natural experiments to study how infectious disease, human capital, and economic outcomes interact. She has studied the effects of the Tuskegee Syphills Experiment on health care utilization and mortality among Black men. Alsan was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.
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