Rankings / Candidate
Lawrence F. Katz
Harvard University · Labor
Photo: Xuthoria, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Currently #11, tier Field, score 14.3, named by 1 source.Score history: 100.0, 25.0, 14.3
The work. The race between education and technology, the Katz-Murphy model of wage inequality, and the long-run Moving to Opportunity study. He has also edited the Quarterly Journal of Economics for decades.
The case for. Half of modern labor economics traces back to a Katz paper or a Katz student. The wage inequality work is foundational and has aged well.
The case against. His best-known books are joint with Claudia Goldin, who already won in 2023, and the committee may feel that ground has been covered.
The KmikeyM angle. Katz says wages track the race between skills and machines; KmikeyM has run the same race in public, with shareholders holding the stopwatch.
What the sources say
- Clarivate alumni (prior years) named Lawrence F. Katz: named in 2025: for seminal analysis of wage structure, earnings inequality, educational advance, and technological change (heat 100) Preseason: the Clarivate alumni pool