After I cited Mariana Mazzucato when setting out Labour’s vision of an industrial policy I wondered which other economists were cited in parliament and what that said about the economic influences on our parliamentary debates. The House of Commons Library came back with the following results:

It looks as if Adam Smith and Keynes generally battle it out for first place with Stiglitz and Friedman in third and fourth but Mazzucato is now level with Marx and rising.

The House of Commons Library set out several caveats to bear in mind when reading this table.

* The number reflects the number of contributions, not the number of times the name has been said. If a member had mentioned Keynes several times in one speech, this is counted once.

* The table includes contributions made by Members of the House of Lords, in the Lords chamber.

* Searching techniques were used to attempt to exclude instances where an economist name could have been mentioned in regards to something else. For example to exclude instances of ‘Milton Keynes’. In doing so some contributions may have been lost.

* Information management systems have changed over time and so be wary of the dates.