A-Z of Economists Useful for Impressing in your A2 Economics Papers
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Economist
Key Topic Area
Key Insights Relevant to your A2 Macro
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
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)
High inequality can damage growth – e.g. status races
Inequality and
to consume “positional goods” is an inefficient use of
economic growth
scarce resources
Glaeser (Ed)
Agglomeration
economies
His work focuses on factors that drive 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)
Kuznets Curve – illustrates how higher income
Standard of living 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
Social capital
Addressed how communities could create rules of social
behaviour to overcome the tragedy of the commons
Acemoglu
(Daron)
Duflo (Esther)
Ostrom (Elinor)
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Economist
Key Topic Area
Key Insights Relevant to your A2 Macro
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)
Created the Solow neo-classical growth model which
Economic growth 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
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