Thomas J. Sargent

I wasn't the brightest kid, not by a long shot. I was interested in football, in girls, in getting my work done…

— Thomas J. Sargent

The first and most optimistic response was complete rational expectations econometrics. A rational expectations equilibrium is a likelihood function. Maximize it.

— Thomas J. Sargent

I'm happy to say I am a Harrison-Kreps-Keynesian.

— Thomas J. Sargent

There was a danger that skeptics and opponents would misread those likelihood ratio tests as rejections of an entire class of models,…

— Thomas J. Sargent

In the 1980s, there were occasions when it made sense to say, 'it is too difficult to maximize the likelihood function, and…

— Thomas J. Sargent

What I really don't like is oversimplification.

— Thomas J. Sargent

Lucas attended a conference on rational expectations at the University of Minnesota in the spring of 1973. The day after the conference,…

— Thomas J. Sargent

I think you've got to watch out for anybody in high school who says he wants to become an economist.

— Thomas J. Sargent

Keynes was a very good economist. He was brilliant. He had wonderful insights. His work has inspired me many times.

— Thomas J. Sargent

When I was a graduate student, estimating and interpreting distributed lags topped the agenda of macroeconomists and other applied economists.

— Thomas J. Sargent