In 1992, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded its prize in economics to University of Chicago economist Gary Becker. The prize was for “having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including nonmarket behaviour.” Becker’s work was built on the notion that areas historically reserved to other social sciences, particularly sociology, could in fact benefit from the application of economic methodologies. Beginning with his 1955 PhD dissertation, The Economics of Racial Discrimination, Becker made contributions to our understanding of crime and punishment, the household, the family, and even organ donation.
Becker’s radically simple claim—that economics has something to tell us about areas other than GDP and price-setting—changed the face of his profession. It converted economics from a narrow discipline into the wide-ranging, methodologically robust social science it is today. At the same time, it also gave economics what might, by detractors, be seen as a certain conceitedness. Whereas once the field was limited in scope, now it seemed able to offer explanations for everything. Is there really no area where economics cannot speak?
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