Becker, Gary Stanley (1930-2014), an American economist, extended microeconomic theory to the study of marriage, criminal activity, and similar areas of human behavior. Previously, such areas had been studied only by sociologists and anthropologists. Microeconomics is the branch of economics that studies individual economic behavior. Becker believed that the origins of social actions, such as racial discrimination and decisions about the size of families, are economic rather than emotional. For his theories, Becker was awarded the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 1992.
Becker was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 2, 1930. He obtained his doctorate at the University of Chicago. His doctoral dissertation was on racial discrimination, which he argued would cause economic harm not only to the victim, but also to the perpetrator of the discrimination.
From 1954 to 1957, he taught at Columbia University and undertook research at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York City. In 1970, he returned to Chicago and worked on theoretical papers with the Nobel Prize-winning economist George Stigler. Becker also made important contributions to family research. He described the household as a factory producing goods and services. Becker introduced the concept of human capital. This is the idea that people invest in themselves, for example in terms of skills, training, and medical expenses, in the same way that companies do. In 1983, he was made professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago. Becker was a former president of the American Economic Association. For many years, he contributed a column to Business Week magazine. Becker died on May 3, 2014.
