Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker dies at 83: university

Becker, Professor of Economics and Sociology, University of Chicago, speaks at the panel "Marketplace of Ideas" during The Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills(Reuters) – Gary Becker, whose work applying the principles of economics to a wide range of human behavior won the Nobel Prize in 1992, has died at age 83, the University of Chicago said on Sunday. Becker, a student of free-market economist Milton Friedman, died on Saturday after a long illness, the university said on its website. "Gary was a transformational thinker of truly remarkable impact on the world and an extraordinary individual,” University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer said in a statement. Becker got his doctorate in economics at the University of Chicago in 1955 and published the book "The Economics of Discrimination" two years later.