Origins & Early Life

Robert Emerson Lucas Jr. (September 15, 1937 – May 15, 2023) was an American economist at the University of Chicago. Widely regarded as the central figure in the development of the new classical approach to macroeconomics, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1995 "for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy". N.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Gregory Mankiw characterized him as "the most influential macroeconomist of the last quarter of the 20th century". In 2020, he ranked as the 10th most cited economist in the world. Lucas was born on September 15, 1937, in Yakima, Washington, as the eldest child of Robert Emerson Lucas and Jane Templeton Lucas. His parents ran an ice creamery in Yakima. After the business failed during the Great Depression, the family moved to Seattle.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

His mother worked as a fashion designer and his father worked at a shipbuilding yard and later worked as a welder with a refrigeration company. Lucas received his BA in history in 1959 from the University of Chicago. Lucas attended the University of California...

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• 1937 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1937
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