One measure of economics GOAT

Who is the greatest economist of all time? This paper provides one potential measure that, along with other considerations, can contribute to debates on who the greatest economist of all time is. We build a novel dataset on the percentage of history of economic thought textbooks dedicated to top economists, using 43 distinct textbooks (1st editions, when available) published between 1901 and 2023. As a percentage of total book pages, Adam Smith has the highest share at 6.69%, beating out Ricardo (5.22%), Mill (3.83%), and Marx (4.36%). Just over 32% of all textbooks allocated most of their pages to Adam Smith, followed by Marx with 18.6%, Mill with 13.95%, and Ricardo with 11.3%. While interesting as a history of economic thought project, such an exercise isn’t merely amusing pedantry; it can provide insight into the types of contributions, research questions, and methodologies that have had the most enduring impact in economics. It may also inform future authors of history of economic textbooks.

That is from a new paper by Gabriel Benzecry and Daniel J. Smith.  There is of course also my generative book on this topic at econgoat.ai.