Gary S. Becker

Bio: Gary S. Becker is an academic researcher from University of Chicago. The author has contributed to research in topics: Human capital & Consumption (economics). The author has an hindex of 94, co-authored 227 publications receiving 135183 citations. Previous affiliations of Gary S. Becker include Columbia University & EAFIT University.

Becker et Foucault sur les délits et les peines. Débat entre Gary Becker, François Ewald et Bernard E. Harcourt

Abstract: Bernard E. Harcourt Nous allons aborder principalement la theorie economique du crime et du châtiment de Gary Becker (1968), et l’analyse par Foucault du travail de Becker dans le cours du 21 mars 1979 (Foucault, 2004 : 245-270). Nous en profiterons pour explorer d’une maniere profonde la relation entre, d’une part, les textes de Foucault sur la penalite (de La Societe punitive, cours de 1972-1973 [Foucault, 2013] a Surveiller et punir en 1975, jusqu’a La Naissance de la biopolitique [Foucaul...

Voir La Vie De Façon Économique

Abstract: Mes recherches utilisent l'approche économique pour analyser des problèmes de société qui se situent hors des préoccupations habituelles des économistes. Cette leçon s'attachera à décrire l'approche économique et à l'illustrer par des exemples extraits de travaux passés et actuels. Contrairement à l'analyse marxiste, l'approche économique à laquelle je me réfère ne suppose pas que les individus soient uniquement motivés par l'égoïsme et l'appât du gain. Il s'agit d'une méthode d'analyse et non d'une hypothèse concernant des motivations particulières. Avec d'autres, j'ai essayé de détacher les économistes de l 'hypothèse étroite de l'intérêt personnel. Le comportement est commandé par un ensemble bien plus riche de valeurs et de préférences. L'analyse suppose que les individus maximisent leur bien-être tel qu'ils le conçoivent, suivant qu'ils sont égoïstes, altruistes, fidèles, rancuniers ou masochistes. Leur comportement est orienté vers le futur, de même qu'il est cohérent à travers le temps. En particulier, ils tentent d'anticiper de leur mieux les conséquences incertaines de leurs actions. Un comportement tourné vers l'avenir peut toutefois trouver ses racines dans le passé, car le passé peut exercer une influence durable sur les attitudes et les valeurs. Les actions sont contraintes par le revenu, le temps, la mémoire et les capacités de calcul imparfaites, et autres ressources limitées, mais aussi par les possibilités disponibles dans l'économie. Ces occasions sont en grande partie déterminées par les actions privées et collectives des autres individus et organisations.

Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital

Abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...

Forms of Capital

Abstract: The social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects. Capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its ‘incorporated,’ embodied form) which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. It is a vis insita, a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. It is what makes the games of society – not least, the economic game – something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds out the opportunity of winning a lot of money in a short space of time, and therefore of changing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, and in which the winning of the previous spin of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new spin, gives a fairly accurate image of this imaginary universe of perfect competition or perfect equality of opportunity, a world without inertia, without accumulation, without heredity or acquired properties, in which every moment is perfectly independent of the previous one, every soldier has a marshal’s baton in his knapsack, and every prize can be attained, instantaneously, by everyone, so that at each moment anyone can become anything. Capital, which, in its objectified or embodied forms, takes time to accumulate and which, as a potential capacity to produce profits and to reproduce itself in identical or expanded form, contains a tendency to persist in its being, is a force inscribed in the objectivity of things so that everything is not equally possible or impossible. And the structure of the distribution of the different types and subtypes of capital at a given moment in time represents the immanent structure of the social world, i.e. , the set of constraints, inscribed in the very reality of that world, which govern its functioning in a durable way, determining the chances of success for practices.

The mechanics of economic development

Abstract: This paper considers the prospects for constructing a neoclassical theory of growth and international trade that is consistent with some of the main features of economic development. Three models are considered and compared to evidence: a model emphasizing physical capital accumulation and technological change, a model emphasizing human capital accumulation through schooling, and a model emphasizing specialized human capital accumulation through learning-by-doing.