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OK, Ross, let me start the debate. It is interesting that your post 
indicates that influence might be measured by economists' impact on public 
policy, on popular ideas about the economy, or on political institutions. I 
would like to suggest that there are multiple valuation principles 
operating simultaneously in (academic economic) science itself: one for 
truth, another for fame/credit, and another in money terms (see, e.g., 
Mario Biagioli "Aporias of Scientific Authorship: Credit and Responsibility 
in Contemporary Biomedicine," in Mario Biagioli, ed. _The Science Studies 
Reader_ New York: Routledge, 1999, pp. 12-30; James Boyle _Shamans, 
Software, and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society_ 
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996). I have to give credit, so 
to speak, to Philip Mirowski, with whom I am editing a book on the 
economics of science (_Science Bought and Sold: The New Economics of 
Science_ Chicago: University of Chicago Press, forthcoming), for bringing 
this to my attention. Additional, and different, valuation principles 
operate in popular science, or everyday economics. These include the ones 
mentioned in the post. Here "credit" is due to Arjo Klamer and his project 
on _The Art of Economic Persuasion_. Hence, given my own interests as an 
academic economist, I would have suggested, say, Thomas Sargent or Herbert 
Simon as two of the most important/influential U.S. economists of this 
century. However, this is judging by (my own) academic standards rather 
than everyday, or popular, standards. In addition, though I am certainly no 
important/influential U.S. economist, my institution employs yet different 
standards in evaluating me. I suppose the researcher at Princeton 
University would rather have names than concerns such as those raised in 
this posting, but I think it is important to keep these in mind. 
Incidentally, these are also important for the mindless scientometric 
research that appears every now and then. 
 
Esther-Mirjam Sent 
University of Notre Dame 
(currently at the London School of Economics on a sabbatical, which gives 
me time to post to the list, though spending my time writing a paper, 
instead of posting a message, may do me more good as far as academic 
valuation is concerned!) 
http://www.nd.edu/~esent 
 
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