Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist / Edition 2

by George J. Stigler

Overview

In this witty and modest intellectual autobiography, George J. Stigler gives us a fascinating glimpse into the little-known world of economics and the people who study it. One of the most distinguished economists of the twentieth century, Stigler was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1982 for his work on public regulation. He also helped found the Chicago School of economics, and many of his fellow Chicago luminaries appear in these pages, including Fredrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, and Gary Becker. Stigler's appreciation for such colleagues and his sense of excitement about economic ideas past and present make his Memoirs both highly entertaining and highly educational.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226774404
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	03/15/2003
Series:	Cinema and Modernity (Paperback)
Edition description:	1
Pages:	235
Sales rank:	119,926
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

George J. Stigler (1911-1991) taught at the University of Chicago for more than thirty years, helping to pioneer the Chicago School of economic theory. He received the Nobel Prize for economics in 1982. He was the author of, among other books, The Theory of Price, The Intellectual and the Marketplace and Other Essays, and The Citizen and the State: Essays on Regulation.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Series
Author's Preface

Prologue Are Economists Good People?
Chapter 1 Getting Started
Chapter 2 University Life
Chapter 3 Economics in Depression and in War
Chapter 4 The Strategy of Science: The National Bureau
Chapter 5 Eureka!
Chapter 6 Monopoly
Chapter 7 Political Regulation of Economic Life
Chapter 8 The Economist as Expert
Chapter 9 The Apprentice Conservative
Chapter 10 The Chicago School
Chapter 11 Academic Freedom and Responsibility

Editorial Reviews

Mr. Stigler is at his best as a historian of economic thought, great and small. . . . He also provides abundant insight into the anthropology of the tribe of academic economists in the latter 20th-century U.S., bizarre as it may be. Interspersed in all that is a simple autobiography of a gentle man and his lifelong love affair with the dismal science. Anyone even on the edge of economic romance will find here a refreshing bouquet.

Wall Street Journal - Robert B. Reich

Beautifully written, it will appeal to anyone seeking a better understanding of what technical economics is all about. It is full of stories about powerful minds, courageous intellects and tightly focused issues.

Boston Globe - David Warsh

Stigler’s memoirs are a gem: in style, in wit, and above all, in substance, they reflect accurately his own engaging personality and his extraordinarily diverse contributions to our science.”

Milton Friedman

Should be read by anyone considering a career in economics, but Stigler’s writing is so accessible that his discussions will whet even a casual interest.

Business Week - James C. Cooper

A loving and fierce defense of economics as a science.

New York Times Book Review - Robert Krulwich

“Mr. Stigler is at his best as a historian of economic thought, great and small. . . . He also provides abundant insight into the anthropology of the tribe of academic economists in the latter 20th-century U.S., bizarre as it may be. Interspersed in all that is a simple autobiography of a gentle man and his lifelong love affair with the dismal science. Anyone even on the edge of economic romance will find here a refreshing bouquet.”

— Robert B. Reich

Wall Street Journal

“A loving and fierce defense of economics as a science.”

— Robert Krulwich

New York Times Book Review

“Beautifully written, it will appeal to anyone seeking a better understanding of what technical economics is all about. It is full of stories about powerful minds, courageous intellects and tightly focused issues.”--,

— David Warsh

Boston Globe

“Should be read by anyone considering a career in economics, but Stigler’s writing is so accessible that his discussions will whet even a casual interest.”--,

— James C. Cooper

Business Week

Stigler, one of the leading figures in the conservative ``Chicago School'' of economics, won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1982 for his work on the economics of information and on the economics of public regulation. In this engaging memoir, he recounts his intellectual development. As a graduate student at the University of Chicago during the 1930s, he was deeply influenced by economists Frank Night and Jacob Viner. These two mentors nurtured his belief in the efficacy of free markets and the harm that government interference in markets often causes. Stigler, who taught at Iowa State University and Columbia University before returning to the University of Chicago in 1958, here describes the work of colleagues like Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, Ronald Coase and Richard Posner, ``Chicago'' economists who share a fierce commitment to free markets and to rigorous microeconomic analyses. Stigler concludes that economic logic will eventually pervade other, less rigorous social sciences. This is a well-written and tautly argued book. (September)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly