   robert emerson lucas, jr. (born september 15, 1937) is an american economist at the university of chicago. he received the nobel memorial prize in economic sciences in 1995. he has been characterized by n. gregory mankiw as "the most influential macroeconomist of the last quarter of the 20th century." ==biography== he was born in 1937, in yakima, washington, the oldest child of robert emerson lucas and jane templeton lucas. he received his b.a. in history in 1959 and ph.d. in economics in 1964, both from the university of chicago. lucas studied economics for his phd on "quasi-marxist" grounds. he believed that economics was the true driver of history, and so he planned to fully immerse himself in economics and then migrate back to the history department. following graduation, lucas taught at the graduate school of industrial administration (now tepper school of business) at carnegie mellon university until 1975, when he returned to the university of chicago. his ex-wife, rita lucas, upon their divorce in 1988, had a clause placed in their divorce settlement that she would receive half of any nobel prize won by lucas in the next seven years. when lucas did win the nobel prize in 1995 
1937_births American_Nobel_laureates American_economists Carnegie_Mellon_University_faculty Guggenheim_Fellows Living_people Macroeconomists Members_of_the_United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences New_classical_economists Nobel_laureates_in_Economics People_from_Yakima,_Washington Presidents_of_the_Econometric_Society University_of_Chicago_alumni University_of_Chicago_faculty