Department of Economics

Professor Becker’s primary research and teaching interests are in the fields of capital theory, general equilibrium analysis, and game theory. Most of his research focuses on the relationship between optimal growth paths and dynamic equilibrium programs, as well as on the dynamics of capital accumulation programs with heterogeneous agents and incomplete markets. He also studies the foundations of recursive utility functions that serve as the objectives of agents in a variety of dynamic models. This research is presented in his monograph Capital Theory, Equilibrium Analysis, and Recursive Utility (co-authored with John H. Boyd, III) published by Basil Blackwell Publishers in 1997. He recently returned to this topic. Current working papers examine the foundations of recursive utility functions based on Thompson aggregators introduced to the literature in the past decade. His publications on questions arising in dynamic competitive models appear a range of journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Economic Theory, Journal of Mathematical Economics, and Econometrica. Professor Becker is also the co-editor with Professor Edwin Burmeister of Growth Theory, Edward Elgar, 1990. This is a three volume collection of reprinted articles on descriptive, optimal and equilibrium growth theories. Edward Elgar, 2013, also published his edited readings on the Economic Theory of Income Inequality. Professor Becker is also serving as an Associate Editor of The International Journal of Economic Theory, and Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics. Professor Becker was Executive Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (2006-2011) and Chair of the Economics Department (1996-2002).