| 1 | Name: | Dr. Gary Stanley Becker | |
| Institution: | University of Chicago | ||
| Year Elected: | 1986 | ||
| Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 302. Economics | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1930 | ||
| Death Date: | May 3, 2014 | ||
Gary Stanley Becker was born in 1930 in a coal mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. His family moved to Brooklyn a few years later, where he was first exposed to economics by his father, who gave him the task of reading stock quotations and other reports on financial developments. After graduating from Princeton University in three years, Dr. Becker earned his Ph.D. in 1955 from the University of Chicago, where he studied under Milton Friedman, Gregg Lewis and other prominent thinkers. Known for his distinction as an economic theorist and for pioneering the application of economic theory to human behavior (such as in welfare policy, population and the family), Dr. Becker published numerous important works, including the 1981 book A Treatise on the Family, in which he analyzed the effect of factors such as divorce, family size and changes in family composition and structure on inequality and economic growth. A greatly expanded edition of this pioneering work was published in 1991. In addition to his scholarly output, Dr. Becker also penned monthly articles for Business Week magazine beginning in 1985. He served on the faculty of Columbia University from 1957-70 and was University Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago beginning in 1970. A Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution as well, Dr. Becker held the presidency of the American Economic Association and had been recognized with the Seidman Award as well as the first social science Award of Merit from the National Institute of Health. He received the National Medal of Science in 2000 and then served on the committee that recommends medal recipients. Dr. Becker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 2007 and the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1986. Gary Becker died May 3, 2014, at the age of 83, in Chicago, Illinois. | |||