Sargent, Thomas J (1943– )

US economist. Sargent founded the ‘new’ classical macroeconomics with Robert Lucas. His theories stress that there is a natural level of unemployment, and that departures from the natural rate are completely random. He has held teaching posts at the universities of Pennsylvania 1970–71, Minnesota 1971–87, Chicago 1992–98, and Stanford 1998–2002, since when he has been professor of economics and business at New York University. He has also been a fellow of the Econometric Society since 1976 and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford since 1987.