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,
#3251
Omri Ben-Shahar
#56510
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Omri Ben-Shahar is the Leo and Eileen Herzel Professor of Law, and Kearney Director and founder of the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School. Prior to his tenure at University of Chicago in 2008, Ben-Shahar was the Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Michigan, and was the founder and director of the Olin Center for Law and Economics from 1999 to 2008.
Go to Profile#3252
Seung‐hoon Yoo
#149985
Overall Influence
#3253
Jürgen Schupp
#150003
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#3254
Sidney John Gray
#150013
Overall Influence
#3255
Nazım Ekren
#105853
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Nazım Ekren is a Turkish academic and politician who was the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey responsible for economic affairs from 2007 until 2009. Political career He was appointed to his position in August 2007, succeeding Abdüllatif Şener. Ekren is a former professor of banking and international finance.
Go to Profile#3256
Jan Pieter Krahnen
#38761
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Jan Pieter Krahnen is Professor for corporate finance at the Goethe-University Frankfurt and director of the Center for Financial Studies and the Research Center SAFE. Life After completing an apprenticeship at the BHF-Bank, Krahnen studied business administration at the Goethe University Frankfurt where he earned a PhD in 1984. Four years later he received his postdoctoral lecture qualification from the Freie Universität Berlin. After staying at the University of Cologne and the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Krahnen returned to the Goethe University Frankfurt in 1995. At the same time h...
Go to Profile#3257
Leslie Roos
#115207
Overall Influence
Leslie Leon Roos is a Distinguished Professor in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2010. He is also a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and was a founding director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.
Go to Profile#3258
Anita Elberse
#9738
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Anita Elberse is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, specializing in the entertainment, media and sports sectors. Trained as an economist and econometrician, according to The Wall Street Journal, she "takes the same statistically rigorous approach to entertainment and cultural industries that sabermetricians do to baseball" in her scholarly research. She has published more than four dozen in-depth case studies on companies and personalities in the world of entertainment, and one book, “Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment.”
Go to Profile#3259
Philip Edward Keefer
#150184
Overall Influence
#3260
John V. Richardson Jr.
#85059
Overall Influence
John Vinson Richardson Jr. is an American professor of information studies at University of California, Los Angeles, with a significant record of research and publications on intelligent question answering systems, reference service, and history of librarianship. His current research focuses on assessment and evaluation issues related to virtual reference such as time in queue, service duration, content analysis or microanalysis of questions, as well as user satisfaction. Currently, Richardson also serves as an adjunct professor in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University...
Go to Profile#3261
Dave Brat
#64661
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
David Alan Brat is an American politician and academic. A member of the Republican Party, Brat served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district from 2014 to 2019. Brat came to national prominence when he defeated the U.S. House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, in the 2014 Republican primary in Virginia's 7th congressional district. His primary victory, which he achieved with the support of the Tea Party movement, made Brat the first primary challenger to oust a sitting House Majority Leader since the position's creation in 1899. Brat went on to win the 2014 general election and was re-elected to Congress in 2016.
Go to Profile#3262
Manuchehr Shahrokhi
#20633
Overall Influence
Manuchehr Shahrokhi is a professor of Global Business-Finance at California State University, Fresno, founding editor of the Global Finance Journal and Executive Director of the Global Finance Association/Conference. He has authored over 80 published journal articles, proceedings, books, and manuals on finance topics. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University from 1993 to 1999. His hobbies include: Family, Soccer, Travel, Reading, Writing, and Professional/Community Services.
Go to Profile#3263
Hrishikesh D. Vinod
#150439
Overall Influence
#3264
Eric Michael Thomas J. Leeper
#150505
Overall Influence
#3265
Sarah Byford
#104174
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Sarah Byford is economist André professor of health economics and director of King's Health Economics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She specializes in the economic evaluation of mental health services and clinical and economic evaluation of complex interventions, including services for children and adolescents.
Go to Profile#3266
Khurshid Ahmad
#62500
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Khurshīd Ahmad , is a Pakistani economist, philosopher, politician, and an Islamic activist who helped to develop Islamic economic jurisprudence as an academic discipline and one of the co-founders of The Islamic Foundation in Leicester, UK.
Go to Profile#3267
Charles Cicchetti
#97725
Overall Influence
Charles Joseph Cicchetti, born on July 31, 1943, in Jersey City, is an American economist. Education Cicchetti studied at the United States Air Force Academy from 1961 to 1964 and received a bachelor's degree in economics from Colorado College in 1965. He received a PhD in economics from Rutgers University in 1969.
Go to Profile#3268
Harry Anthony Patrinos
#150582
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#3269
Stefan Fölster
#46941
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Stefan Fölster is a Swedish economist and author. He is the president of the Swedish Reform Institute and an associate professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Fölster is the author and co-author of several books on economic reform, including Robotrevolutionen, which looks at the winners and losers in the digital age, and Renaissance of Reforms, that was based on an analysis of 109 governments that completed their term of power in OECD countries between the mid-1990s and 2012. With Dag Detter, Fölster wrote The Public Wealth of Nations: How Management of Public Assets ...
Go to Profile#3270
William D. Grampp
#103451
Overall Influence
1914 - 2019 (105 years)
William D. Grampp was an American economist. Academic career In 1944 he was awarded his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. His dissertation was titled “Mercantilism and Laissez Faire in American Political Discussion”. He worked as a journalist before joining the University of Illinois, where he taught from 1947 to 1980. In 1980 he became professor emeritus and also a visiting professor of social science at the University of Chicago. In 1994 he was appointed lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
Go to Profile#3271
Stefano Ranucci
#57340
Overall Influence
Stefano Ranucci is an Italian manager and president of the Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano . Biography Ranucci is president of the Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano. From 2010 is part of the political party Italian Union Movement - MUI. He was general manager of Iberia airline , Vastours and Ristonova srl.
Go to Profile#3272
Frank A. G. Windmeijer
#150888
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
#3273
Rodrigo R. Soares
#31013
Overall Influence
Rodrigo Reis Soares is an economist specializing in development economics. He is Lemann Professor of Brazilian Public Policy and International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the Lemann Foundation Chair at Insper.
Go to Profile#3274
Martha Farnsworth Riche
#104550
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Martha Farnsworth Riche is an American economist who directed the United States Census Bureau from 1994 to 1998. Early life and pre-census career Riche was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She studied labor economics at the University of Michigan, where she earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1960. She stayed at Michigan for another year, earning a master's degree in 1961. Being female made her unable to obtain interviews at the banking firms she had been aiming for, so instead she worked on productivity statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1961 to 1976.
Go to Profile#3275
Stephen P. Heyneman
#150938
Overall Influence
#3276
Richard James Smith
#151023
Overall Influence
#3277
Ryan C. Amacher
#70815
Overall Influence
1945 - 2016 (71 years)
Ryan C. Amacher was an American economics professor, dean and university president. During his career he was associated in various capacities with University of Virginia, General Electric Company , the University of Oklahoma, U.S. Treasury, Arizona State University, Clemson University, and the University of Texas at Arlington.
Go to Profile#3278
Juergen Zeddies
#64970
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Juergen Zeddies is a German agricultural economist, Emeritus of the University of Hohenheim and an advisor to German and international governments and research organisations. Life and work In the summer term of 1974 he became stand-in professor for Wilhelm Brandes and in October of the same year was appointed Professor of Agricultural Management at the University of Hohenheim, where he remained until 2008. Zeddies received a number of commissions from national and state ministries, for example to draw up plans for milk quotas, set-aside of land, direct payments to agriculture and for the EU ...
Go to Profile#3279
Glenn MacDonald
#119692
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Glenn MacDonald is a Canadian-born American economist. He is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, and a professor of economics in the department of economics in the school's College of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as the director of the Center for Research in Economics and Strategy at Olin.
Go to Profile#3280
Bart le Blanc
#73911
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Lambertus Johannes Carolus Maria "Bart" Le Blanc is a Dutch economist, with a career spanning the sectors of public finance, banking and asset management. He is one of the founding partners of Andreas Capital S.A a Luxembourg-based asset management company. Since 1 January 2015 he is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the APG Group . He is Chairman of the Investment Committee of the United Nations, office for project services UNOPS.
Go to Profile#3281
George S. Oldfield
#46331
Overall Influence
George S. Oldfield is a financial economist. He has been published extensively, and is cited for his work on the effects of a firm's unvested pension benefits on its share price published in the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking in 1977.
Go to Profile#3282
Stefan Thurner
#151365
Overall Influence
#3283
Xavier Monnet
#151434
Overall Influence
#3284
Roger W. Mills
#35056
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Roger W. Mills is a British economist working in the area of corporate finance. Emeritus professor at Henley Business School University of Reading, the group chairman at Value Focus Group, a group of consulting firms, chief instructor and chairman of the British Shito Ryu Karate Association , 8th Dan .
Go to Profile#3285
Terry Odean
#151494
Overall Influence
#3286
Louis Pauly
#64131
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Louis W. Pauly FRSC is the J. Stefan Dupré Distinguished Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto, where he has held the Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Governance and served as Department Chair, Director of the Centre for International Studies, and Interim Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Go to Profile#3287
Richard M. Auty
#151605
Overall Influence
#3288
Francesc Granell
#146830
Overall Influence
1944 - 2022 (78 years)
Francesc Granell i Trías was a Spanish economist and academic. He was a professor of Applied Economics at the University of Barcelona. As a public servant, Granell held governmental positions in Catalonia, Spain, and the European Community.
Go to Profile#3289
Francesco Parisi
#72543
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Francesco Parisi is a legal scholar and economist, working primarily in the United States and Italy. He is the Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School and Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Bologna. Parisi specializes in the economic analysis of law. His research uses formal models and technical results in areas from international law to behavioral law and economics to tort law.
Go to Profile#3290
Lisa Cameron
#100496
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Lisa Cameron is an Australian economist currently working as a Professional Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. Biography Lisa Cameron earned her Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne in 1989, where she graduated with first class honours. This was followed by completing a Masters of Commerce degree in 1992, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Indonesian Modern Language in 1999. Thereafter, Cameron completed a M.A. and subsequently proceeded to complete a PhD in economics at Princeton University. While a...
Go to Profile#3291
Yannis Stournaras
#88795
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Yannis Stournaras is a Greek economist who has been the Governor of the Bank of Greece since June 2014. Previously, he had been the Greek Minister of Finance from 5 July 2012 serving until 10 June 2014. As every Governor of an IMF member country, he is on the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund.
Go to Profile#3292
Roger Bivand
#116507
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Roger Simon Bivand is a British geographer, economist and professor at the Norwegian School of Economics. He specialises in open source software for spatial analysis, and played a major role in developing functions for spatial data in the R statistical programming language, including the R packages sp, rgdal, maptools and rgrass7. His book Applied Spatial Data Analysis with R , coauthored with Edzer Pebesma and Virgilio Gómez-Rubio, is considered "the authoritative resource on R's spatial capabilities".
Go to Profile#3293
Sweder J. G. Van Wijnbergen
#151805
Overall Influence
#3294
Murray L. Weidenbaum
#151945
Overall Influence
#3295
Vladimír Valach
#109808
Overall Influence
1937 - 2006 (69 years)
Vladimír Valach was a Slovak diplomat, economist and writer. He significantly contributed to the development of Slovak banking sector and French-Slovak relations. Biography Vladimír Valach was born on 26 April 1937 in Tekovské Nemce, Czechoslovakia. He studied at the University of Economics in Prague . Between 1968-1976 he worked as a branch manager of the commercial banking arm of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia in Bratislava. Subsequently he held the post of a deputy general director of the State Bank. In the 1990s, Valach capitalized on his experience in the field of banking and monetary policy, when he was named the first vice-governor of the CNB's Emission bank in Prague.
Go to Profile#3296
Donald A. Wittman
#152135
Overall Influence
#3297
Dr. David L. Greene
#152160
Overall Influence
#3298
Alan J. Garber
#152222
Overall Influence
#3299
Timothy Mason Bates
#152231
Overall Influence
#3300
Frank Milne
#88865
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Frank Milne is an Australian and Canadian economist and financial theorist. He is currently BMO Professor of Economics and Finance in the Economics Dept., Queen's University, Canada. Milne's research interests and contributions have included theoretical analysis of financial security pricing; analysis of financial stability in banking systems; financial risk management systems; and the analysis of corporate and non-profit governance structures.
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