Yet by raising a big question, and then more of them, he prompted others throughout the economics field to think in fresh ways. In a 1972 paper, he asked, in effect, whether a policy like expanding the money supply made sense if one doesn’t take into account the way people rationally adjust their expectations (and actions) as a result. Even the phrase he’s most associated with – “rational expectations” – wasn’t original to him. And by many accounts, his prescriptions were often wrong as well as right.
This thought dates back at least to Socrates, and it’s been reflected in many a great teacher or thinker since.This week Robert Lucas, a University of Chicago economist who died Monday, is being remembered by his peers as perhaps the most important economist of his generation – one who in some ways reframed the entire field of “macro,” researching the economy as a whole. Yet this Nobel laureate is nowhere near as famous as, say, his Chicago colleague Milton Friedman. Sometimes asking questions is as important – maybe even more important – than finding answers.
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