Lucas, Robert Emerson, Jr. (1937-2023), an American economist, originated the rational expectations theory, claiming that people anticipate government economic policies and alter their actions to make those policies ineffective. His work in the 1970’s challenged the previously popular idea that government intervention can be effective in setting taxes and rates of interest. Lucas’s new ideas had wide influence on public policy, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for economic sciences in 1995.
Lucas was born in Yakima, Washington. He was educated at the University of Chicago, initially studying mathematics, but then moving on to history. In graduate school, he started studying economics. From 1963 until 1974, Lucas taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1980, he became distinguished service professor at the University of Chicago. His most influential work was an article entitled “Expectations and the Neutrality of Money,” published in 1972. Lucas died on May 15, 2023.
