| 1 | The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities | Journal of Political Economy | 1973 | 23,288 |
| 2 | Law and Finance | Journal of Political Economy | 1998 | 16,024 |
| 3 | Endogenous Technological Change | Journal of Political Economy | 1990 | 14,486 |
| 4 | Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth | Journal of Political Economy | 1986 | 13,860 |
| 5 | Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests | Journal of Political Economy | 1973 | 13,044 |
| 6 | Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach | Journal of Political Economy | 1968 | 10,163 |
| 7 | A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures | Journal of Political Economy | 1956 | 10,113 |
| 8 | Increasing Returns and Economic Geography | Journal of Political Economy | 1991 | 8,432 |
| 9 | Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm | Journal of Political Economy | 1980 | 8,331 |
| 10 | Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition | Journal of Political Economy | 1974 | 8,158 |
| 11 | The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration | Journal of Political Economy | 1986 | 7,531 |
| 12 | A New Approach to Consumer Theory | Journal of Political Economy | 1966 | 7,487 |
| 13 | Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Liquidity | Journal of Political Economy | 1983 | 7,384 |
| 14 | Large Shareholders and Corporate Control | Journal of Political Economy | 1986 | 6,737 |
| 15 | Rules Rather than Discretion: The Inconsistency of Optimal Plans | Journal of Political Economy | 1977 | 5,783 |
| 16 | A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change as Informational Cascades | Journal of Political Economy | 1992 | 5,569 |
| 17 | Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis | Journal of Political Economy | 1962 | 5,393 |
| 18 | Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets | Journal of Political Economy | 1990 | 5,313 |
| 19 | The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences | Journal of Political Economy | 1985 | 5,079 |
| 20 | Performance Pay and Top-Management Incentives | Journal of Political Economy | 1990 | 5,057 |
| 21 | Credit Cycles | Journal of Political Economy | 1997 | 5,056 |
| 22 | The Economics of Information | Journal of Political Economy | 1961 | 4,991 |
| 23 | Liquidity Risk and Expected Stock Returns | Journal of Political Economy | 2003 | 4,931 |
| 24 | On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health | Journal of Political Economy | 1972 | 4,837 |
| 25 | Nominal Rigidities and the Dynamic Effects of a Shock to Monetary Policy | Journal of Political Economy | 2005 | 4,761 |
| 26 | Information and Consumer Behavior | Journal of Political Economy | 1970 | 4,714 |
| 27 | By Force of Habit: A Consumption‐Based Explanation of Aggregate Stock Market Behavior | Journal of Political Economy | 1999 | 4,477 |
| 28 | Are Government Bonds Net Wealth? | Journal of Political Economy | 1974 | 4,379 |
| 29 | Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts | Journal of Political Economy | 1981 | 4,349 |
| 30 | Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogeneous Growth | Journal of Political Economy | 1990 | 4,323 |
| 31 | Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm | Journal of Political Economy | 1990 | 4,295 |
| 32 | A Rational Theory of the Size of Government | Journal of Political Economy | 1981 | 4,131 |
| 33 | Convergence | Journal of Political Economy | 1992 | 4,044 |
| 34 | Growth in Cities | Journal of Political Economy | 1992 | 3,804 |
| 35 | The Economics of Exhaustible Resources | Journal of Political Economy | 1931 | 3,728 |
| 36 | Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences | Journal of Political Economy | 2003 | 3,599 |
| 37 | Expectations and Exchange Rate Dynamics | Journal of Political Economy | 1976 | 3,597 |
| 38 | Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive | Journal of Political Economy | 1990 | 3,553 |
| 39 | The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery | Journal of Political Economy | 1954 | 3,264 |
| 40 | Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory | Journal of Political Economy | 1950 | 3,225 |
| 41 | Financial Contagion | Journal of Political Economy | 2000 | 3,206 |
| 42 | Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem | Journal of Political Economy | 1990 | 3,112 |
| 43 | Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools | Journal of Political Economy | 2005 | 3,087 |
| 44 | A Theory of Rational Addiction | Journal of Political Economy | 1988 | 3,081 |
| 45 | The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance | Journal of Political Economy | 1981 | 3,076 |
| 46 | Oil and the Macroeconomy since World War II | Journal of Political Economy | 1983 | 2,922 |
| 47 | The Costs and Returns of Human Migration | Journal of Political Economy | 1962 | 2,822 |
| 48 | Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility | Journal of Political Economy | 1955 | 2,810 |
| 49 | Advertising as Information | Journal of Political Economy | 1974 | 2,796 |
| 50 | A Theory of Social Interactions | Journal of Political Economy | 1974 | 2,787 |