Economists You Should Know

Economists You Should Know and Why This Question Reveals More About Us Than About the Past

When I begin my course Business Ethics and Sustainability, I start with thinkers whose ideas have shaped the world we live in.

Every semester, I ask my students to create their own Top 10 list of the most influential economic and economic‑philosophical thinkers. Not to find a definitive ranking. Such a thing doesn’t exist. But to explore which ideas matter to us today.

Here is one list that recently emerged:

1. Without Karl Marx, the political map of the 20th century would look entirely different.
2. Adam Smith shaped the intellectual foundations of the global economic order.
3. Aristotle provided the groundwork for all later economic and political theory.
4. Hildegard of Bingen offered a remarkably modern understanding of moral leadership and soft power.
5. Immanuel Kant shaped the moral and legal infrastructure of modern societies.
6. John Maynard Keynes laid the foundations of modern macroeconomics and the post‑1945 world economy.
7. Ibn Khaldun developed an advanced theory of labor, taxation, and social cohesion centuries ahead of his time.
8. Thomas Hobbes made possible the very idea of order that underpins property, contracts, and markets.
9. Joseph Schumpeter defined capitalism as a process of creative destruction and shaped our understanding of innovation.
10. Elinor Ostrom demonstrated that communities can manage resources sustainably — a cornerstone of today’s climate debates.

This mix alone shows that economics is never just economics. It is always also ethics, politics, power analysis, and a vision of the future.

What surprises me about these rankings

• That Ibn Khaldun is now mentioned so naturally. A sign of a more global intellectual canon.
• That Hildegard of Bingen appears in governance debates. Evidence of our search for alternative models of leadership.
• That Elinor Ostrom consistently enters the Top 10. Showing that sustainability is no longer a side topic but central to economic thinking.

And of course, someone is always missing: Amartya Sen, Max Weber, Hayek, Friedman, Rawls, and many others. Depending on one’s perspective, the list could be expanded endlessly.

This exercise asks a simple question with profound consequences: Which ideas do we carry forward and which ones should we rethink?

The discussion makes visible that economic thinking is always a moral project. Business ethics begins with people, their ideas, their mistakes, their visions and with the question of which of them we want to shape our future.

The ranking itself is just a playful element of the course. But the debate it sparks is real.

So what surprises you about this list  and who do you think is missing?

And yes, guesses are welcome: Who recognizes the person currently being discussed on my laptop screen?

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I am Bernd Scharbert, teaching Business Ethics and Sustainability at Albstadt‑Sigmaringen University in the Faculty of Business Science and Management.

In my consulting work, I support leaders in applying intercultural principles in their daily practice. If you’re curious to explore these ideas further, feel free to look into my book Prepare for Landing: Leitlinien für interkulturelle Führung (transl.: Guiding Principles for Intercultural Leadership), published by Barbara Budrich.