Starting in the Spring of 1986, graduate students have chosen an outstanding scholar to visit for a day, giving a lecture and talking with graduate students. This series honors Lionel McKenzie for his outstanding contribution to the field of economics and for his life-long commitment to the Rochester Ph.D. program.

The Department provides the Graduate Student Council with the funds necessary to pay for travel and an honorarium. The students usually arrange a "pot-luck" dinner for the speaker, which provides an ideal setting for informal discussions between students and the speaker.

Some of the most influential contemporary economists have participated in this series:

• Jerry R. Green (2007) Choice, Rationality and Welfare Measurement.
• Ariel Rubinstein (2006) The Economics of the Jungle: Comments on the Way We Teach Economics.
• Robert E. Hall (2005) New Ideas about the Causes and Magnitudes of Recessions.
• Alvin Roth (2004) Kidney Exchange.
• Oliver Hart (2003) Firm versus Contracts.
• Robert Barro (2002) Religion and Economics.
• Eric Maskin (2001) Auctions and Efficiency
• Thomas J. Sargent (2000) Robustness in Macroeconomics
• Joseph Stiglitz (1999) Global Financial Crises
• Robert Merton (1998)
• Paul Krugman (1997) Globalisation and Globaloney
• David M. Kreps (1996) Bounded Rationality and Transaction Cost Economics
• Paul M. Romer (1995) The Extended Preference Approach to Human Behavior
• Robert Fogel (1994) Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy
• Robert J. Aumann (1993) "As If" Reasoning in Games Theory and Economics
• Lars Hansen (1992)
• Truman Bewley (1991) A Theoretical View...
• Hugo Sonnenschein (1990) The Uses and Limitations of Extensive Form Game Theory
• Gary Becker (1989) Rational Addiction
• Andreu Mas-Colell (1988) Gross Substitutability in Large-Square Economies
• Robert E. Lucas, Jr. (1987) On the Mechanics of Economic Development
• Edward Prescott (1986) Dynamic Coalitions, Firm Size, and Growth

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