He was a great transgressor of boundaries. His work on the economics of discrimination, human capital and crime won him a Nobel prize. I met him before he was a Nobel when I was at the GSB. I then ran into him after he had won it and he hadn't changed.
Of course I found the same to be true of George Stigler and Bob Fogel. Their lack of Krugmanesqe arrogance and its concomitant abandonment of the quest for truth in favor of a Nobel fueled quest for fame seems so quaint today.
In retrospect they stand as quiet giants in a land of squalling pygmies. More about his achievements at the link.
PS that means that the greatest living economist is now Tom Sowell. You would think that the Nobel committee would want to get on the Prizes for Black Dudes bandwagon but their reluctance to honor Sowell just emphasizes his greatness. In an era of relentless racialist propaganda and cant he has made a career of explaining what is really going on with racial disparity. Observations that don't comport with the new racists' agenda. And of course, derided as an 'Uncle Tom' it makes no difference that he's been right.
In his case not winning a deserved Nobel may be a greater tribute to his courage and constancy under attack than any Swedish gong.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Becker.html
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