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George Joseph Stigler (; January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991) was an American
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
. He was the 1982 laureate in
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
and is considered a key leader of the
Chicago school of economics The Chicago school of economics is a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago, some of whom have constructed and popularized its principles. Milton Friedman and George Stig ...
.


Early life and education

Stigler was born in
Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
, the son of Elsie Elizabeth (Hungler) and Joseph Stigler. He was of German descent and spoke
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
in his childhood. He graduated from the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...
in 1931 with a BA and then spent a year at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
from which he obtained his MBA in 1932. It was during his studies at Northwestern that Stigler developed an interest in economics and decided on an academic career.


Career

After he received a tuition scholarship from the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, Stigler enrolled there in 1933 to study economics and went on to earn his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
in economics there in 1938. He taught at Iowa State College from 1936 to 1938. He spent much of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, performing mathematical and statistical research for the
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
. He then spent one year at
Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
. He served on the Columbia faculty from 1947 to 1958. At Chicago, he was greatly influenced by Frank Knight, his dissertation supervisor.
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
, a friend for over 60 years, commented that it was remarkable for Stigler to have passed his dissertation under Knight, as only three or four students had ever managed to do so in Knight's 28 years at Chicago. Stigler's influences included Jacob Viner and Henry Simons as well as students W. Allen Wallis and Friedman. Stigler is best known for developing the ''Economic Theory of Regulation'' (1971), also known as
capture Capture may refer to: *Asteroid capture, a phenomenon in which an asteroid enters a stable orbit around another body *Capture, a software for lighting design, documentation and visualisation *"Capture" a song by Simon Townshend *Capture (band), an ...
, which says that interest groups and other political participants will use the regulatory and coercive powers of government to shape laws and regulations in a way that is beneficial to them. This theory is a component of the
public choice Public choice, or public choice theory, is "the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems of political science".Gordon Tullock, 9872008, "public choice," '' The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics''. . Its content includes the ...
field of economics but is also deeply opposed by public choice scholars belonging to the "Virginia School," such as Charles Rowley. He also carried out extensive research in the
history of economic thought History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
. Stigler's most important contribution to economics was published in his landmark 1961 article, "The Economics of Information." According to Friedman, Stigler "essentially created a new area of study for economists." Stigler stressed the importance of information: "One should hardly have to tell academicians that information is a valuable resource: knowledge is power. And yet it occupies a slum dwelling in the town of economics."Milton Friedman (1992)
"George Joseph Stigler January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991,"
''Biographical Memoirs''. National Academy of Sciences.
His 1962 article "Information in the Labor Market" developed the theory of search unemployment. In 1963 he was elected as a
Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...
. He was known for his sharp sense of humor, and he wrote a number of spoof essays. In his book ''The Intellectual and the Marketplace'', for instance, he proposed ''Stigler's Law of Demand and Supply Elasticities'': "all demand curves are inelastic and all supply curves are inelastic too." The essay referenced studies that found many goods and services to be inelastic over the long run and offered a supposed theoretical proof; he ended by announcing that his next essay would demonstrate that the price system does not exist. Another essay, "A Sketch on the Truth in Teaching," described the consequences of a (fictional) set of court decisions that held universities legally responsible for the consequences of teaching errors. The Stigler diet is also named after him. Stigler wrote numerous articles on the history of economics, published in the leading journals and republished 14 of them in 1965. The ''American Economic Review'' said, "many of these essays have become such well-known landmarks that no scholar in this field should be unfamiliar with them... The lucid prose, penetrating logic, and wry humor... have become the author's trademarks." Stigler was a founding member of the Mont Pelerin Society and was its president from 1976 to 1978. He was a
libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
/ classical liberal. He received National Medal of Science in 1987.


Bibliography

* (1939). "Production and Distribution in the Long Run," ''Journal of Political Economy'', 47(3), pp
305–327 (arrow-scrollable).
* (
941 Year 941 ( CMXLI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * May – September – Rus'–Byzantine War: The Rus' and their allies, th ...
1994). ''Production and Distribution Theories: The Formative Period''. New York: Macmillan
& Description arrow-scrollable preview.
* (1945). "The Cost of Subsistence," ''Journal of Farm Economics'', 2, pp
303–314. Arrow-scrollable.
* (1961). "The Economics of Information," ''Journal of Political Economy'', 69(3), pp
213–225.
* (1962a). "Information in the Labor Market." ''Journal of Political Economy'', 70(5), Part 2
pp. 94–105.
* (1962b). ''The Intellectual and the Marketplace''. Selected Papers, no. 3. Chicago: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Reprinted in Sigler (1986), pp
79–88
* (1962c). (With Claire Friedland) "What Can Regulators Regulate," ''Journal of Law and Economics'', pp
3–21.
* (1963). (With Paul Samuelson) "A Dialogue on the Proper Economic Role of the State." Selected Papers, no. 7. pp
3–20.
Chicago: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business * (1963). ''Capital and Rates of Return in Manufacturing Industries''. National Bureau of Economic Research, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press * (1965). Reviewed at
Shepard B. Clough Shepard Bancroft Clough (December 6, 1901 – June 7, 1990) was an American economic historian. He was a professor of European history at Columbia University. Biography Clough was born on December 6, 1901, in Bloomington, Indiana, and moved to Le ...
(1965). "Essays in the History of Economics. George J. Stigler," ''The Journal of Modern History'', 37(3), p
357.
& Herbert M. Bernstein (1967), "Essays in the History of Economics by George J. Stigler," ''Technology and Culture'', 8(1), pp
136–138.
/ref> * (1968). '' The Organization of Industry''
Description

arrow-scrollable preview.
Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin * (1970). (With J.K. Kindahl) ''The Behavior of Industrial Prices''. National Bureau of Economic Research, New York: Columbia University Press * (1971). "The Theory of Economic Regulation." ''Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science'', no. 3, pp
3–18 (arrow-scrollable)
* (1972). "The Adoption of Marginal Utility Theory," ''History of Political Economy'', 4(2), pp
571
��586. Also below at * (1982b). * (1975). ''Citizen and the State: Essays on Regulation'' * (1982a).
"The Process and Progress of Economics,"
Nobel Memorial Lecture, 8 December (with bibliography) * (1982b). ''The Economist as Preacher, and Other Essays''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press * (1983). '' The Organization of Industry'' * (1985). autobiography * (1986). ''The Essence of Stigler'', K.R. Leube and T.G. Moore, ed. Arrow-scroll to respectiv
essays.
* (1987). ''The Theory of Price'', Fourth Edition. New York: Macmillan * (1988). ed. ''Chicago Studies in Political Economy'' For comprehensiveness, see Vicky M. Longawa (1993), "George J. Stigler: A Bibliography," ''Journal of Political Economy'', 101(5), pp
849–862. Arrow–scrollable.


See also

*
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
*
Regulatory capture In politics, regulatory capture (also agency capture and client politics) is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests ...
* Stephen Stigler, his son


Notes


References

* Diamond, Arthur M., Jr. (2005). "Measurement, Incentives, and Constraints in Stigler's Economics of Science." ''The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought'' 12, no. 4637–63. * Friedman, Milton (1993). "George Stigler: A Personal Reminiscence," ''Journal of Political Economy'' 101(5), arrow-scrollable pp
768–773.
* _____ (1998). "George J. Stigler, 1911–1991
A Biographical Memoir
* Hammond, J. Daniel, and Claire H. Hammond, ed. (2006). ''Making Chicago Price Theory: Friedman–Stigler Correspondence, 1945–1957''. Routledge. 165 pp. . * Levy, David M., and Sandra J. Peart. (2008). "Stigler, George Joseph (1911–1991)." ''
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics'' (2018), 3rd ed., is a twenty-volume reference work on economics published by Palgrave Macmillan. It contains around 3,000 entries, including many classic essays from the original Inglis Palgrave Dictio ...
'', 2nd Edition
Abstract.
* Palda, Filip (2016). ''A Better Kind of Violence: Chicago Political Economy, Public Choice, and the Quest for an Ultimate Theory of Power''. Cooper-Wolfling Publishers. . * * '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'' (1987): * "Stigler, George Joseph" by Peter Newman, v. 4, p. 498. * "Stigler as an historian of economic thought" by Thomas Sowell, v. 4, pp. 498–499. * "Stigler's contribution to microeconomics and industrial organization," by Richard Schmalense, v. 4, pp. 499–500 * Schmalensee, Richard (1983). "George Stigler's Contributions to Economics, ''The Scandinavian Journal of Economics'', 85(1), pp
77–86 (arrow-scroll searchable).


External links

*

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stigler, George 1911 births 1991 deaths American Nobel laureates American people of German descent American people of Hungarian descent Historians of economic thought 20th-century American economists Nobel laureates in Economics National Medal of Science laureates University of Chicago alumni Kellogg School of Management alumni University of Chicago faculty Columbia University faculty University of Washington alumni Scientists from Seattle Earhart Foundation Fellows Critics of Marxism 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the American Economic Association Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association National Bureau of Economic Research Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Economists from Washington (state) Historians from Washington (state) 20th-century American male writers American libertarians Classical liberals Chicago School economists Member of the Mont Pelerin Society Journal of Political Economy editors