Akerlof Quotes

#1. [A]n important new book ... Professor Akerlof and Rachel Kranton have invented Identity Economics.

Daniel Finkelstein

#2. It is a wonderful and unexpected honor to receive the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Receiving this prize with Joseph Stiglitz and George Akerlof, whose work I have learned from and admired, makes it even more gratifying.

Michael Spence

#3. It is far more rewarding to complete one paragraph of quality work, than one whole chapter of drivel.

Shirley Dawson

#4. The whole intention of empirical economics is to force theory down to Earth.

George Akerlof

#5. The idea is that in any situation, people have a notion as to who they are and how they should behave. And if you don't behave according to your identity, you pay a cost.

George Akerlof

#6. Keynesian economics has always been needed.

George Akerlof

#7. I don't want to raise a child by myself. I could do it. But I definitely don't want to. I want to be a mother who has the original father there.

Christina Applegate

#8. In the late 1960s, the New Classical economists saw the same weaknesses in the microfoundations of macroeconomics that have motivated me. They hated its lack of rigor. And they sacked it.

George Akerlof

#9. Mountain climbing was my original sport ... and I've never tired from the satisfaction of getting to the top of a mountain.

Steve Fossett

#10. My father was a chemist on the Yale faculty, my mother a housewife.

George Akerlof

#11. I grew up in the motel business, and it evolved into hotels.

Penny Pritzker

#12. My brother Carl became a physicist; I became an economist.

George Akerlof

#13. 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

Anonymous

#14. When men do all the outside work, they contribute on average about 10 percent of housework. But as their share of outside work falls, their share of housework rises to no more than 37 percent.

George Akerlof

#15. The failure of credit markets is one of the major reasons for underdevelopment.

George Akerlof

#16. Prior to the early 1960s, economic theorists rarely constructed models customized to capture unique institutions or specific market characteristics.

George Akerlof

#17. A great turning point is in the offing. The world is changing. It's changed before, but not for a long time in our lives, not since before our lives. But now it's changing, and there are many many possibilities.

Terence McKenna

#18. My mother, whose interest in chemistry was rather minimal, nevertheless went to graduate school in the subject and married my father, for whom it was as important as life itself.

George Akerlof

#19. My Swedish grandmother was the daughter of a dairy farmer who lived near Hedemora. My Swedish grandfather worked as a clerk for the Swedish railways in the Stockholm station.

George Akerlof

#20. The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves.

Eric Hoffer

#21. I don't want to talk as much,' she said, denting her chin thoughtfully with her forefinger. 'It's nicer to think dear, pretty thoughts and keep them in one's heart, like treasures.

L.M. Montgomery

#22. In New Classical theory, periods of declining employment - business cycle downturns - may be caused by an unexpected decline in aggregate demand, which leaves workers mistakenly holding out for nominal wages that exceed the new market-clearing level.

George Akerlof

#23. From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not.

Laozi

#24. I've always been a macroeconomist. That's what I teach. And I guess that's what I've been concerned with ever since I've been very young.

George Akerlof

#25. His cold politeness, his ceremonious grace, were worse than anything.

Jane Austen

#26. The only way we are going to ameliorate pressing social needs is through public intervention.

George Akerlof

#27. The key to productivity is to rotate your avoidance techniques.

Shannon Wheeler

#28. I think what Bob Shiller and I are doing is we're focusing on macroeconomics and the role of psychology in macroeconomics.

George Akerlof

#29. When you give chief executives too much compensation in stock options, they concentrate too much on the stock price, and there is a perverse incentive to raise the stock price, particularly when the chief executive wants to exercise his own options.

George Akerlof

#30. I would never have been a good reporter because I am not accurate regarding facts.

George Akerlof

#31. Parents don't take a baby's temperature to decide whether the room is too warm; likewise, for global warming, we need a story that spurs us to do what is necessary.

George Akerlof

#32. In acting class they tell you that you have to be real, connect with the people, connect with your partner. The same as politics, you have to connect to the people.

Arnold Schwarzenegger