George Arthur Akerlof arrived in New Haven, Connecticut on the 17th of June 1940. His mother Rosalie Clara Grubber was a housewife of German Jewish descent while his father Gösta Carl Åkerlöf was a chemist and inventor who had immigrated from Sweden.
Akerlof published The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1970. This paper identified severe problems that afflict markets characterized by asymmetric information and established his reputation.
George Akerlof earned the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz in 2001. He received this award based on work identifying severe problems that afflict markets characterized by asymmetric information.
George Akerlof married architect Kay Leong briefly in 1974 before divorcing three years later after he failed promotion to full professor at Berkeley. In 1978 Akerlof married Janet Yellen an economist who became United States Secretary of the Treasury and chair of Federal Reserve.
George Akerlof taught at UC Berkeley for most of his career until retirement in 2010 when he received Koshland Professor of Economics Emeritus status. He had become Goldman Professor of Economics at Berkeley in 1980.