Robert Lucas Jr.

American economist and Nobel Laureate

Born: September 15, 1937 · Died: May 15, 2023

Famous Persons

Who was Robert Lucas Jr.?

Robert Emerson Lucas Jr. (September 15, 1937 – May 15, 2023) was an American economist at the University of Chicago. Lucas was born in Yakima, Washington, as the eldest child of Robert Emerson Lucas and Jane Templeton Lucas. After the business failed during the Great Depression, the family moved to Seattle. His mother worked as a fashion designer and his father worked at a shipbuilding yard and later worked as a welder with a refrigeration company. Lucas received his BA in history in 1959 from the University of Chicago. In 2020, he ranked as the 10th most cited economist in the world. His parents ran an ice creamery in Yakima.

Historical significance

Widely regarded as the central figure in the development of the new classical approach to macroeconomics, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1995 "for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy". N. Gregory Mankiw characterized him as "the most influential macroeconomist of the last quarter of the 20th century".

Sources and further reading

Use the dated article for the day-specific account; use these references to check the event record and explore its wider historical context.

Wikipedia source

Cite this page

MLA

“Robert Lucas Jr.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/robert-lucas-jr/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

APA

Robert Lucas Jr. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/robert-lucas-jr/

Chicago

“Robert Lucas Jr.” thisDay. Accessed October 26, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/robert-lucas-jr/.

Found an error? Let us know.