M. Hashem Pesaran

The work. Pesaran built the tools applied economists reach for when data comes in panels: a test for whether countries or firms move together, an estimator that handles it, and the bounds test for long-run relationships. His Global VAR ties national economies into one system.

The case for. Every cross-country macro paper of the last twenty years runs at least one Pesaran procedure.

The case against. Tool builders get cited, not crowned, and he would split with Hendry and Phillips, who each have a cleaner single line.

The KmikeyM angle. Cross-sectional dependence means units that look independent secretly move together, which is every KmikeyM vote once the shareholders read the same Discord.