In 1992 the American economist Gary Becker (born 1930) was awarded the Nobel prize in economics for ‘having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including non-market behaviour’. By applying the economists’ rational choice paradigm beyond the traditional subject matter of economics, Becker probably did more to challenge conceptions of the scope of the subject than anybody in the twentieth century.
Gary Becker grew up in New York City. His father had left his home in Canada for the USA at 16, while his mother’s family had arrived from eastern Europe when she was 6 months old. Gary’s parents both left school at 16 and, although his father followed the political and financial news and there were lively discussions in the house about politics and justice, it was not a bookish household.
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