Robert Lucas was born in Washington, USA. He studied at the University of Chicago (where he received a bachelor's degree in history in 1959 and a doctorate in Economics in 1964) and the University of California. He worked at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Chicago. Lucas studied Economics for his doctoral dissertation on an "almost-Marxist" basis. He believed that Economics was the real engine of history, and intended to return to the Department of history after delving into Economics.
Scientific activity
Lucas is recognized as one of the most influential economists since the 1970s, and is known for challenging the foundations of macroeconomic theory, in which Keynesianism was the most influential until then, arguing that a macroeconomic model should be based on a generalized interpretation of microeconomic models. He developed the "Lucas Critique" of the definition of economic policy, which is that relationships that persist in the economy, such as the observed relationship between inflation and unemployment, can change in response to changes in economic policy. Lucas is well known for studying the consequences of assuming rational expectations and is recognized as the author of the concept of rational expectations, as well as the head of the " new school»
New theory of economic growth
Robert Lucas, along with Paul Romer, is the founder of a new theory of economic growth known as the "Lucas-Romer"model. According to this model, the main driver of economic growth is the growth of investment in R & d and investment in human capital. One of the conclusions of the Romer and Lucas models is that an economy with human capital resources and advanced science has a better chance of growth in the long run than an economy without these advantages. This work won him the Nobel prize in 1995.