According to the Economist magazine, when they asked their experts at the Economics by Invitation which economist was most influential over the past decade, there were ten:
1. Ben Bernanke
2. John Maynard Keynes
3. Jeffrey Sachs
4. Hyman Minsky
5. Paul Krugman
6. Adam Smith
7. Robert Lucas
8. Joseph Stiglitz
9. Friedrich Hayek
10. Alan Greenspan
There was a follow-up question: which economists have the most important ideas in a post-crisis world? The votes were:
1. Raghuram Rajan
2. Robert Shiller
3. Kenneth Rogoff
4. Barry Eichengreen
5. Nouriel Roubini
There were other nominations, but you have to go to the Economist's website to look at them. Of course, there was a caveat to this poll that they admitted:
"This obviously isn't a scientific poll of the profession, but it is interesting to get some sense of from where the profession sees its influence emanating."
Most, I would agree; while some, I am not aware of. But, to reiterate what Economist magazine has mentioned, they all seemed to have strong economic ideas that they managed to influence the voters.