Top Economists of 2012

Election years seem to be challenging for economists, although many seem to make the most of them.  Economic analysis is generally quite complicated and often starts out with the words, "It depends."  These answers are terrible in the segmented world of television and radio.  The general public wants concise answers that say this is good because blah blah blah and this is bad because blah blah blah.  On the one hand 2012 was great because so many people are interested in talking about topics that economists study, but on the other hand most people still just want the headline rather than the story.

 

Paul Krugman (photo: Zé Carlos Barretta)

Part of this task is determining who is an economist and who is not.  I have made an editorial decision not to include economists that were most famous for being elected politicians.  There are other dilemmas, such as central bankers.  I have decided to leave them in as they are often also academic economists, and while there are political aspects to the job, it is inherantly an post concerned with monetary economics.  The other major dilemma this year is Nate Silver.  He had a spectacular surge in popularity based on his election prediction blog with The New York Times and has a new book out called The Signal and the Noise.  He is often referred to as a statistician because he uses those skills frequently in his writing, but he majored in economics at the University of Chicago.  I've decided to include him, but he blows out my stats on the other economists.  What a year he's had!

Top Economists of 2012:

 

rank.  name, institution (rank last year)

 

1.   Nate Silver (NR)

2.   Paul Krugman, Princeton University (1)

3.   Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Board of Governors (4)

4.   Amartya Sen, Harvard University (5)

4.   Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institute (9)

6.   Mario Draghi, European Central Bank (3)

7.   Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University (9)

8.   Alan Greenspan (7)

8.   Robert Reich, University of California - Berkeley (9)

8.   Walter Williams, George Mason University (9)

11. Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University (NR)

11. Nouriel Roubini, New York University (7)

13. Mark Carney, Bank of England (NR)

13. Simon Johnson, M.I.T. (16)

13. Robert Lucas, University of Chicago (18)

13. Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University (16)

17. Brad DeLong, University of California - Berkeley (23)

17. Peter Diamond, M.I.T. (19)

17. David Friedman, Santa Clara University (19)

17. Robert Merton, M.I.T. (19)

21. Dean Baker, C.E.P.R. (NR)

21. Gary Becker, University of Chicago (25)

21. Mervyn King (19)

21. Greg Mankiw, Harvard University (25)

21. Raghuram Rajan, University of Chicago (NR)

21. Robert Shiller, Yale University (23)

21. Vernon Smith, Chapman University (NR)

21. Lawrence Summers, Harvard University (14)

29. Daron Acemoğlu, M.I.T. (NR)

29. Olivier Blanchard, I.M.F. (NR)

29. Tyler Cowen, George Mason University (25)

29. Esther Duflo, M.I.T. (NR)

29. Steven Levitt, University of Chicago (25)

29. Thomas Sargent, Seoul National University (NR)

29. Michael Spence, New York University (29)

 

The rankings were calculated on December 31, 2012.  Elinor Ostrom was removed from this list due to her death this past June.  She will be missed and remembered.  There are also (as ever) a number of great economists that unfortunately have names that are not the number one or obvious google search.  That list includes John Taylor, Kevin Mitchell, Robert Hall, Justin Lin, and others.  Please feel free to add more names in the comments.  To acquire the rankings, I simply used the Google Trends website.  Although Nate Silver was first, I used Paul Krugman and Mark Carney as the base individuals and ran all the economists I could think of.  I'm sure I missed some good people.

Top Economists of 2011

(Here are the Top Economists of 2012)

Comparing economists is a bit like comparing apples and oranges.  There is so much diversity in the topics that they approach, and different approaches that they take.  Still, it can be quite fun even if ultimately meaningless.

I started entering all the living economists names that I could think of into Google Trends to see who is the most searched for name at Google in 2011.  I think it's an interesting addition to the ways of ranking economists because it shows searches and general awareness.  Here are the results:

Paul Krugman (photo: Cory Doctorow)

rank. name, affiliation (relative percent to top score, ranking last year)

1.   Paul Krugman, Princeton University (100%, 1)
2.   Manmohan Singh, India (85%, 2)
3.   Mario Draghi, European Central Bank (60%, NR)
4.   Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Board (46%, 3)
5.   Amartya Sen, Harvard University (34%, 4)

6.   Gloria Arroyo (30%, 16)
7.   Alan Greenspan (26%, 5)

7.   Nouriel Roubini, New York University (26%, 7)
9.   Robert Reich, University of California - Berkeley (24%, NR)
9.   Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institute (24%, 6)
9.   Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University (24%, 8)
9.   Walter Williams, George Mason University (24%, 9)
13. Mario Monti, Italy (20%, NR)
14. Justin Lin, World Bank (18%, 10)
14. Lawrence Summers, Harvard University (18%, 30)
16. Simon Johnson, M.I.T. (16%, 12)
16. Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University (16%, 12)
18. Robert Lucas, University of Chicago (14%, 30)
19. Peter Diamond, M.I.T. (12%, 20)
19. David Friedman, Santa Clara University (12%, NR)
19. Mervyn King, Bank of England (12%, 12)
19. Robert Merton, M.I.T. (12%, 16)

23. Brad DeLong, University of California, Berkeley (10%, 12)

23. Robert Shiller, Yale University (10%, 16)
25. Gary Becker, University of Chicago (8%, 20)

25. Tyler Cowen, George Mason University (8%, 20)
25. Steven Levitt, University of Chicago (8%, 26)
25. Greg Mankiw, Harvard University (8%, 16)
29. Elinor Ostrom, Indiana University / Arizona State University (6%, 20)
29. Michael Spence, Hoover Institute (6%, 30)

A number of economists were withdrawn because they were not their top Google search.  The best example of this is John B. Taylor of Stanford University who also shares the same name with a former NFL player and a member of rock group Duran Duran.  Others include, Robert Hall, Robert Lawrence, Peter Phillips, James Hamilton, Kevin Murphy, and James Robinson.

EDIT: As a commenter noticed, Robert Merton is now at M.I.T. and I switched that.  I appreciate everyone adding new economists that I did not think of, this can be considered my selection bias.  I'll leave them in the comments this year, but I will make sure to include them in my calculations next year.  Please keep them coming.

A Fun Way To Rank Economists!

Comparing economists is a bit like comparing apples and oranges.  There is so much diversity in the topics that they approach, and different approaches that they take.  A lot of places like JSTOR rank them by citations, IDEAS ranks them with a compilation of 31 methodologies.  According to their rankings, Andrei Shleifer of Harvard is number one.  I love ranking anything!  I think this goes back to my childhood love of baseball statistics.

There are so many awards that economists can have.  The Nobel Prize is probably the top award in the field, but the John Bates Clark Medal, and being President of the American Economic Association are both highly regarded as well.  Acquiring a great job is the best thing that can happen to any economist, so heading a central bank or any economics department are both extremely prestigious honors as well.

I started entering all the living economists names that I could think of into Google Trends to see who is the most searched for name at Google in 2011.  I think it's an interesting addition to the ways of ranking economists because it shows searches and general awareness.  Here are my results:

As you can see Paul Krugman has a pretty comfortable lead.  He is the trend setter in this exercise with a 1.00 that everyone else's scores are based on.  Why not?  The guy has the bully pulpit of a New York Times column to work with, not to mention all the best-selling books he's written and a Nobel Prize.

Both number two Manmohan Singh and number three Ben Bernanke fill important government positions which land them in the news regularly.  They both still appear on this list because they are both trained economists that later became the Prime Minister and Chairman respectively.


Top Economists in Google Trends:


1.  Paul Krugman, Princeton University (1.00)
2.  Manmohan Singh, India (.58)
3.  Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Board (.44)
4.  Amartya Sen, Harvard University (.38)

5.  Alan Greenspan (.28)

6.  Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institute (.26)
7.  Nouriel Roubini, New York University (.22)
8.  Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University (.20)
9.  Walter Williams, George Mason University (.18)
10.Robert Hall, Stanford University (.12)

10.Justin Lin, World Bank (.12)

12.Brad DeLong, University of California, Berkeley (.10)
12.Simon Johnson, M.I.T. (.10)
12.Mervyn King, Bank of England (.10)
12.Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University (.10)
16.Gloria Arroyo (.08)
16.Greg Mankiw, Harvard University (.08)
16.Robert Merton, Harvard University (.08)
16.Robert Shiller, Yale University (.08)
20.Gary Becker, University of Chicago (.06)
20.Agustin Carstens, Bank of Mexico (.06)
20.Tyler Cowen, George Mason University (.06)
20.Peter Diamond, M.I.T. (.06)
20.Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago (.06)
20.Elinor Ostrom, Indiana University / Arizona State University (.06)
26.Esther Duflo, M.I.T. (.04)
26.Steven Levitt, University of Chicago (.04)
26.Gene Sperling, National Economic Council (.04)
26.Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank (.04)
30.Michael Spence, Hoover Institute (.02)
30.Olivier Blanchard, M.I.T. (.02)
30.Mark Carney, Bank of Canada (.02)
30.Robert Lawrence, Harvard University (.02)
30.Robert Lucas, University of Chicago (.02)

30.Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University (.02)

30.Lawrence Summers, Harvard University (.02)

If you notice a name that I have forgotten, just go to Google Trends and put in Paul Krugman's name first, separate with a comma, and then any additional economists (up to five at a time).  Put their name in quotes ("Paul Krugman") as to search for the term, and not the individual names Paul and Krugman.  I didn't list many economists that received 0's because I am not doing this exercise to embarrass anyone, it's just for fun.  Please post any new results in the comments section.

There were a hand full that I removed for having (what I felt were) abnormally high scores.  John Nash of Princeton received a 1.14.  I realise he is famous from A Beautiful Mind and game theory.  I'm going to skip him for the technicality that he is a mathematician but really it's because I don't understand his score at all.  John B. Taylor of Stanford received a .78, if just listed as John Taylor.  I removed him because he was not his top Google search, but rather third behind a musician and a football player.  Peter Phillips of Yale received a .24 but has the unfortunate position of having a member of the British royal family sharing his name, which skewed his results around the time of the recent royal wedding.  James Hamilton of University of California, San Diego received a .18, but the economist was not the top site listed in his Google search, and the same for Kevin Murphy (.28) of the University of Chicago and James Robinson of Harvard (.14).  Surely these economists receive and deserve recognition as well.

Here are also some other fun comparisons to make:

The "Marginal Revolution" Authors

Capitalism versus Socialism

Keynes versus Hayek