Quotes by Gary Becker

“Why in almost all societies have married women specialized in bearing and rearing children and in certain agricultural activities, whereas married men have done most of the fighting and market work?”

“A literature has developed on whether discrimination in the marketplace due to prejudice disappears in the long run. Whether employers who do not want to discriminate will eventually compete away all discriminating employers depends not only on the distribution of tastes for discrimination among potential employers, but critically also on the nature of firm production functions.”

“The amount of crime is determined not only by the rationality and preferences of would-be criminals, but also by the economic and social environment created by public policies, including expenditures on police, punishments for different crimes, and opportunities for employment, schooling, and training programs.”

“Fines are preferable to imprisonment and other types of punishment because they are more efficient. With a fine, the punishment to offenders is also revenue to the State.”

“Is it fair or wise to place strict controls on legal immigration when little is done to stem illegal entry? Preference should be given to younger persons who will get jobs and are likely to make a long-term commitment to the country, such as the many men and women who want to study at American universities.”

“Thats what we teach all freshmen -- that investors and workers and everyone else in an economy respond in an important way to incentives, including tax incentives.”

“It is a great film.”

“A stronger yuan could lead to greater Chinese asset accumulation in the U.S. and elsewhere.”

“I was not sympathetic to the assumption that criminals had radically different motivations from everyone else.”

“My work on human capital began with an effort to calculate both private and social rates of return to men, women, blacks, and other groups from investments in different levels of education.”

Still, intuitive assumptions about behavior is only the starting point of systematic analysis, for alone they do not yield many interesting implications.