================= HES POSTING ================= 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 ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]