"A fascinating survey of the richness of modern economic thought." -- Washington Post

Lives of the Laureates provides a condensed and personalized history of modern economic thought, with some of the most eloquent and important contributors to that history as guides. William F. Sharpe of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, Ronald H. Coase of the University of Chicago, and Douglass C. North of Washington University are the distinguished trio of American economic laureates who have added their invaluable insights to this new edition. Sharpe shared the prize with Harry Markowitz and Merton Miller for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics. Coase received the award for his contributions to the theory of the firm and law and economics. North was recognized with Robert Fogel for research in economic history. They are joined by Franco Modigliani, James M. Buchanan, Robert M. Solow, Paul Samuelson, Milton Friedman, W. Arthur Lewis, Lawrence Klein, James Tobin, George Stigler, and Kenneth Arrow in a series of autobiographical essays that describe each economist's personal and professional development. The essays illustrate the diversity of contemporary economic thought in America and shed light on the process by which original ideas are germinated and eventually accepted in a discipline. They show the extent to which scholarly work reflects the lives of its creators; the role of influential teachers and colleagues; and how the economic problems these economists have grappled with mirror the social problems of their times.