Gary Stanley Becker (/ˈbɛkər/; December 2, 1930 – May 3, 2014) was an American economist who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

[2][3] Becker was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992 and received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.

A 2011 survey of economics professors named Becker their favorite living economist over the age of 60, followed by Kenneth Arrow and Robert Solow.

"[4] Becker was one of the first economists to analyze topics that had been researched in sociology, including racial discrimination, crime, family organization, and rational addiction.

His approach also extended to altruistic aspects of human behavior, which he showed to sometimes have self-serving ends (when individuals' utility is properly defined and measured, that is).

He received a BA from Princeton University in 1951, completing a senior thesis titled "The Theory of Multi-Country Trade".

Becker also noted that during his time at Chicago, there were several other economists that greatly influenced his future work, namely Gregg Lewis, T. W. Schultz, Aaron Director, and L. J.

[18][19] A political conservative,[20] he wrote a monthly column for Business Week from 1985 to 2004, alternating with liberal Princeton economist Alan Blinder.

[21] In December 2004, Becker started a joint weblog with Judge Richard Posner entitled The Becker-Posner Blog.

[21] About ten years later, in 1980[10] Becker married Guity Nashat, a historian of the Middle East whose research interests overlapped his own.

His most famous work is Human Capital, and he wrote on sociological topics as diverse as marriage, the family, criminal behavior, and racial discrimination.

[26] Becker recognized that people (employers, customers, and employees) sometimes do not want to work with minorities because they have bias against the disadvantaged groups.

The advance of predators, fueled by linear incentives, slows before the stiffening resistance of prey outraged by non-linear damages.

[31] While Becker acknowledged that many people operate under a high moral and ethical constraint, criminals rationally see that the benefits of their crime outweigh the cost which depends upon the probability of apprehension, conviction, and punishment, and their current set of opportunities.

[38][39] Students and faculty who attended the Becker-Mincer workshop at Columbia in the 1960s and have published in the NHE tradition include Andrea Beller, Barry Chiswick, Carmel Chiswick, Victor Fuchs, Michael Grossman, Robert Michael, June E. O'Neill, Sol Polachek, and Robert Willis.

James Heckman was also influenced by the NHE tradition and attended the labor workshop at Columbia from 1969 until his move to the University of Chicago.

He analyzed determinants for marriage and divorce, family size, parents' allocation of time to their children, and changes in wealth over several generations.

Becker pointed out that a parent foregoes higher income, by focusing on family work commitments in order to maximize a well-meaning objective.