Gary Becker
Gary Becker received the 1992 prize in Economic Sciences. This profile brings together the official award record and attributed background on the economist’s work and career.
Personal and professional profile
- Name
- Gary Becker [1]
- Full name
- Gary S. Becker [2]
- Birth date
- 1930-12-02 [2]
- Birthplace
- Pottsville, PA, USA [2]
- Education
- University of Chicago; Princeton University; James Madison High School [3]
- Fields / occupation
- economist; educator; university teacher; criminologist [3]
- Prize
- Economic Sciences · 1992 [2]
- Research recognized
- for having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including nonmarket behaviour [2]
- Prize share
- 1 [2]
- Affiliation at the award
- University of Chicago [2]
- Death date
- 2014-05-03 [2]
- Institutions in career record
- Columbia University; University of Chicago [3]
Research, education and career background
Gary Stanley Becker (; December 2, 1930 – May 3, 2014) was an American economist, professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, and a leader of the third generation of the Chicago school of economics. [4]
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. Economist Justin Wolfers called him "the most important social scientist in the past 50 years." [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. He argued that many different types of human behavior can be seen as rational and utility-maximizing, including those that are often regarded as self-destructive or irrational. 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 was also among the foremost exponents of the study of human capital. According to Milton Friedman, he was "the greatest social scientist who has lived and worked" in the second part of the twentieth century. [4]
Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — Gary Becker, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.
Award and academic affiliation
The official Nobel record dates the Economic Sciences award to 1992 and lists University of Chicago as the affiliation at the time. [2]
An affiliation attached to an award describes that point in the person’s career; it does not establish a current appointment. [2]
Education and career timeline
Source-supported connections
Frequently asked questions
When did Gary Becker receive the prize in Economic Sciences?
The official award record gives the year as 1992. [2]
Which institution was Gary Becker affiliated with at the time of the Economic Sciences award?
University of Chicago. This is the award-time affiliation. [2]
Gary Becker connection map
Select a node to inspect the relationship and source.
Links retain their source-specific meaning. Award-time affiliations and links to related reading are not claims about current appointments or economic causation.
Sources and review dates
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Wikidata background facts (CC0) ↗
- Wikipedia contributors — Gary Becker (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.