A-Z of Economists Useful for Impressing in your A2 Economics Papers _________________________________________________________________________________ Economist Key Topic Area Key Insights Relevant to your A2 Macro Acemoglu (Daron) Institutions Institutional failures are a key barrier to development, extractive elites can take most of the resource rents causing high inequality Becker (Gary) Human capital Getting the right incentives to provide and fund improved human capital is key to raising productivity and driving innovation Collier (Paul) Development traps, aid et al Has written extensively on “development traps” and the policies best suited for nations to avoid the natural resource curse Duflo (Esther) Behavioural Randomized controlled trials can help increase the effectiveness of aid projects introduced at a micro level in poor communities Easterlin (Richard) Living Standards The Easterlin paradox is that in many countries, incomes rising above a certain threshold bring no significant gain in happiness Frank (Robert) Inequality and economic growth High inequality can damage growth – e.g. status races to consume “positional goods” is an inefficient use of scarce resources Glaeser (Ed) Agglomeration economies His work focuses on factors that the long run expansion and success of cities – urbanization as a driver of development Hidalgo (Cesar) Information and network economics Countries grow rich by increasing computational capacity and building networks of individuals to create new products Kuznets (Simon) Standard of living Kuznets Curve – illustrates how higher income inequality and environmental damage might be reversed as nations grow Lewis (Arthur) Lewis Turning Point Developing countries may see surplus labour flowing from rural to urban areas diminish – lead to rising wages and unit costs Mundell (Robert) Currency unions Devised conditions under which an optimal currency area might be created – focusing on the need for real economic convergence Nash (John Forbes) Game Theory Developed understanding of strategies in games – applied at macro for example in understanding trade/protectionist disputes Ostrom (Elinor) Social capital Addressed how communities could create rules of social behaviour to overcome the tragedy of the commons
Prebisch (Raul) Commodity prices Believed that commodity exporters would eventually see a decline in their real terms of trade and argued for rapid industrialisation Quah (Danny) Globalisation Plots the changing centre of gravity in the world economy – the gradual shift of economic and political power to the south east Ricardo (David) International trade Created the basic theory of comparative advantage still the bedrock of standard trade economics Solow (Robert) Economic growth Created the Solow neo-classical growth model which links capital investment & productivity growth to a nation’s sustainable growth rate Tirole (Jean) Concentrated markets Built understanding of the dynamics of monopolistic and oligopolistic markets arguing for a case by case approach when regulating them Van Reenen (John) Management and Human Capital Has made extensive studies of the role that variations in the quality of business management can have on competitiveness and growth Williamson (Oliver) Behavioural theories of the firm Helped to build theories of management-run businesses whose objectives may differ from owners Yunus (Mohammad) Poverty and growth Founding Father of the Grameen Bank and the idea of micro finance – now focusing on the roles that social entrepreneurship can play Your home of A2 Economics revision: