Gary S. Becker

Defense Policy Board: Member
Manhattan Institute: Trustee
Cato Institute: Associate

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Institutional Affiliations

Government Service

Highlights & Quotes

Gary Becker, the winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economics, is a conservative pundit and longtime proponent of reduced taxes and reduced government spending. In a 1996 PBS interview, Becker said, "I think the main issue is government spending, and I would be willing to take a deficit if we can reduce government spending. I'm afraid we're going to mainly end the deficit by increasing taxes, rather than by cutting spending, and I think that will be a big mistake. ... I much prefer people to spend their own money their way than have the government spend the money for them the way they think it should be spent." (26)

Why Becker, an economist with little experience in foreign and military policy, was chosen to serve on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board is a minor mystery. He is one of eight Hoover fellows serving on the 31-member panel, which has been heavily criticized because of perceived conflicts of interests of its members, many of whom have strong ties to defense companies that stand to benefit from privileged information gleaned by board members. (27)

From a Nobel Prize press release: "Gary Becker's research consists primarily of having extended the domain of economic theory to aspects of human behavior which had previously been dealt with -- if at all -- by other social science disciplines such as sociology, demography and criminology. In so doing, he has stimulated economists to tackle new problems. . Becker's applications of his basic model to different types of human behavior can be accounted for by distinguishing among four research areas: (i) investments in human capital; (ii) behavior of the family (or household), including distribution of work and allocation of time in the family; (iii) crime and punishment; and (iv) discrimination on the markets for labor and goods." (25)

(1) Gary S. Becker's Web Page http://www.src.uchicago.edu/users/gsb1/titlepage.html

(2) Gary S. Becker http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/becker

(3) Gary Becker's Home Page http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/becker.html

(4) Gary S. Becker - Autobiography http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1992/becker-autobio.html

(5) Progam [sic] on American Institutions and Economic Performance
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/research/AmInstitutions.html

(6) Board of Directors http://www.unext.com/company_overview/directors.jsp

(7) Project Co-Chairmen http://www.socialsecurity.org/directors/board.html

(8) Social Security Privatization Project Board http://www.socialsecurity.org/board.html

(9) NABE Fellows http://www.nabe.com/publib/fellow.htm

(10) American Statistical Association http://www.amstat.org/news/4549years.html

(11) Manhattan Institute Board of Trustees http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/trustees.htm

(12) Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions http://www.fastercures.org/index.taf?page=press_release1

(13) Atlas Economic Research Foundation http://www.atlasusa.org/programs/freedomproject_fp.php?refer=programs

(14) ALEA: The American Law and Economics Review http://www.amlecon.org/review/default.asp

(15) National Academy of Education Members http://www.nae.nyu.edu

(16) The Heartland Institute http://www.heartland.org/FAQArticle.cfm?faqId=21

(17) Senior Fellow Gary S. Becker Named National Medal of Science Recipient
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/newsletter/01winter/becker.html

(18) Liberální Institut http://www.libinst.cz/english/annualaward.php

(19) Group Watch: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research http://www.irc-online.org/research/Group_Watch/Entries-04.htm

(20) Gamma Chapter of ODE http://www.cba.nau.edu/facstaff/eastwood-j/gamma.html

(21) Nobel Winners http://www.nber.org/nobel.html

(22) "Introducing The Fraser Institute," 1998 Annual Report, The Fraser Institute, pp. 8 http://oldfraser.lexi.net

(23) Eight Fellows Appointed to U.S. Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/newsletter/02winter/defense.html

(24) Harvard Gazette: 11 awarded honorary degrees http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/06.05/01-honorary.html

(25) Press Release - Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1992 http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1992/press.html

(26) "Nothing to Argue About," PBS, January 9, 1996 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/budget/economists_1-9.html

(27) "Advisors of Influence," Center for Public Integrity Special Report
http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=513&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0