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George Stigler
Born	(1911-01-17)January 17, 1911 Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died	December 1, 1991(1991-12-01) (aged 80) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education	University of Washington (BA) Northwestern University (MBA) University of Chicago (PhD)
Academic career
Institution	Columbia University Brown University University of Chicago Iowa State University
School or tradition	Chicago School of Economics
Doctoral advisor	Frank Knight
Doctoral students	Jacob Mincer Thomas Sowell
Influences	Jacob Viner, Henry Simons, Milton Friedman
Contributions	Regulatory capture theory Industrial organization Search unemployment Stigler diet
Awards	Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1982) National Medal of Science (1987)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

George Joseph Stigler (/ˈstɪɡlər/; January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991) was an American economist. He was the 1982 laureate in Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is considered a key leader of the Chicago school of economics.

Early life and education

Stigler was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of hungarian Elsie Elizabeth (Erzsébet Hungler, born in Bakonypéterd, Veszprém county, Kingdom of Hungary) and bavarian Joseph Stigler. He was of German and Hungarian descent and spoke German in his childhood. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1931 with a B.A. and then spent a year at Northwestern University, 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.

After he received a tuition scholarship from the University of Chicago, Stigler enrolled there in 1933 to study economics and went on to earn his PhD in economics in 1938.

Career

Stigler taught at Iowa State College from 1936 to 1938. He spent much of World War II at Columbia University, performing mathematical and statistical research for the Manhattan Project. He then spent one year at Brown University. He served on the Columbia faculty from 1947 to 1958.

At Chicago, he was greatly influenced by Frank Knight, his dissertation supervisor. Milton Friedman, a friend for over 50 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 regulatory capture, 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 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.

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."

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.

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." However, Deirdre McCloskey has criticised his characterisation of Adam Smith as a father of the 'greed is good' school of economics as a poor reading of the Scottish philosopher's views.

Stigler was a founding member of the Mont Pelerin Society and was its president from 1976 to 1978. He was a libertarian/classical liberal.

Stigler was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1955, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959, and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1975. He received the National Medal of Science in 1987.

Trivia

His relative Antal Koppány was famous for playing draw against Bobby Fischer who was himself of hungarian ancestry through his biological father Paul Neményi.

Bibliography

• (1939). "Production and Distribution in the Long Run," Journal of Political Economy, 47(3), pp. 305–327 (arrow-scrollable).
• ( 1994). Production and Distribution Theories: The Formative Period. New York: Macmillan. & Description arrow-scrollable preview.
• (1942) The Theory of Competitive Price. The Macmillan Company.
• (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.
• (1962d). "The problem of the Negro," "New Guard" 101(5), pp. 11–12.
• (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). Essays in the History of Economics. University of Chicago Press. 1965.
• (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). Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist. University of Chicago Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-226-77440-4. autobiography
• (1986). The Essence of Stigler, K.R. Leube and T.G. Moore, ed. Arrow-scroll to respective essays. ISBN 0-8179-8462-3
• (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.

• (2002). Zingales, L. et al. (Eds.), George Stigler 50 Years Later. Stigler Center.

See also

• Milton Friedman
• Regulatory capture
• Stephen Stigler, his son

Notes

1. Zsolt, Gyurina (2022-09-24). "KISALFOLD - Nobel-díjas rokonnal büszkélkedhet a bakonypéterdi Hofstadter Mátyás". KISALFOLD - Nobel-díjas rokonnal büszkélkedhet a bakonypéterdi Hofstadter Mátyás (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2024-12-05.
2. National Academy of Sciences; Office of the Home Secretary (1 May 1999). Biographical Memoirs. National Academies Press. pp. 342–. ISBN 978-0-309-06434-7.
3. Zsolt, Gyurina (2022-09-24). "Nobel-díjas rokonnal büszkélkedhet a bakonypéterdi Hofstadter Mátyás" [Mátyás Hofstadter from Bakonypéterd can boast a Nobel Prize-winning relative]. KISALFOLD (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2024-09-13.
4. "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1982". Archived from the original on 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
5. Sowell, Thomas (1996), Migrations and Cultures: A World View, New York: Basic Books, p. 82, ISBN 978-0465045891, ...it may be indicative of how long German cultural ties endured that the German language was spoken in childhood by such disparate twentieth-century American figures as famed writer H. L. Mencken, baseball stars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and by the Nobel Prize-winning economist George Stigler.
6. ^ Milton Friedman (1992). "George Joseph Stigler January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991," Archived February 9, 2005, at the Wayback Machine Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Sciences.
7. Friedman, Milton (1993). "George Stigler: A Personal Reminiscence". Journal of Political Economy. 101 (5): 768–773. doi:10.1086/261898. ISSN 0022-3808. JSTOR 2138591.
8. Palda, Filip. A Better Kind of Violence: The Chicago School of Political Economy, Public Choice, and the Quest for and Ultimate Theory of Power. Cooper-Wolfling Press. 2016.
9. George J. Stigler (1961). "The Economics of Information," Journal of Political Economy, 69(3), pp. 213–325. Archived 2010-06-21 at the Wayback Machine
10. George J. Stigler (1962). "Information in the Labor Market." Journal of Political Economy, 70(5), Part 2, pp. 94–105. Archived 2022-02-21 at the Wayback Machine
11. View/Search Fellows of the ASA Archived 2016-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 2016-07-23.
12. George J. Stigler, 1973. "A Sketch of the History of Truth in Teaching," Journal of Political Economy, 81(2, Part 1), pp. 491 Archived 2024-03-01 at the Wayback Machine–495.
13. Based on his 1945 article. "The Cost of Subsistence," Journal of Farm Economics, 2, pp. 303–314. Arrow-scrollable. Archived 2022-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
14. Thomas Sowell, review in American Economic Review (June, 1965), p. 552.
15. George J. Stigler, Essays in the History of Economics (University of Chicago Press, 1965).
16. McCloskey, Deirdre Nansen, Preface, Mullen, Roger, Smith, Craig, & Mochrie, Robbie (eds.) *2023), Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers, Adam Smith Global Foundation, Kirkcaldy, pp. 7 & 8, ISBN 9781399963497.
17. "The Rise, Decline, and Reemergence of Classical Liberalism | Belmont University | Nashville, TN". www.belmont.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-05-26. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
18. "Stigler, George J. (1911–1991)". www.libertarianism.org. Archived from the original on 2021-06-12. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
19. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Archived from the original on 2023-01-20. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
20. "George Joseph Stigler". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 2023-01-20. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
21. "George J. Stigler". www.nasonline.org. Archived from the original on 2019-05-05. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
22. Tóni bácsi, aki Katziáner Antalként született, majd nevét magyarosította Koppányra, végül ő is Amerikába került. Ő arról híres, hogy döntetlent játszott a világhírű sakkozóval, Bobby Fischerrel.
23. Zsolt, Gyurina (2022-09-24). "KISALFOLD - Nobel-díjas rokonnal büszkélkedhet a bakonypéterdi Hofstadter Mátyás". KISALFOLD - Nobel-díjas rokonnal büszkélkedhet a bakonypéterdi Hofstadter Mátyás (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2024-12-05.
24. Lachmann, L. M. (1943). "Review of The Theory of Competitive Price". Economica. 10 (39): 264–265. doi:10.2307/2549996. ISSN 0013-0427. JSTOR 2549996.
25. Reviewed at Shepard B. Clough (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. Archived 2024-03-01 at the Wayback Machine

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.
• Friedman, M. (1999). "George J. Stigler, 1911–1991. National Academies Press. A Biographical Memoir.
• Hammond, J. Daniel, and Claire H. Hammond, ed. (2006). Making Chicago Price Theory: Friedman–Stigler Correspondence, 1945–1957. Routledge. 165 pp. ISBN 0-415-70078-7.
• Levy, David M., and Sandra J. Peart. (2008). "Stigler, George Joseph (1911–1991)." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 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. ISBN 978-0-9877880-7-8.
• Steelman, Aaron (2008). "Stigler, George J. (1911–1991)". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 492–493. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n299. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024.
• 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

• "George J. Stigler (1911–1991)". The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty (2nd ed.). Liberty Fund. 2008.
• George Stigler's seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation.
• "George Stigler". JSTOR.
• Works by or about George Stigler at the Internet Archive.
• George Stigler on Nobelprize.org .

v t e Laureates of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences
1969–1975	1969: Ragnar Frisch / Jan Tinbergen 1970: Paul A. Samuelson 1971: Simon Kuznets 1972: John R. Hicks / Kenneth J. Arrow 1973: Wassily Leontief 1974: Gunnar Myrdal / Friedrich August von Hayek 1975: Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich / Tjalling C. Koopmans
1976–2000	1976: Milton Friedman 1977: Bertil Ohlin / James E. Meade 1978: Herbert A. Simon 1979: Theodore W. Schultz / Sir Arthur Lewis 1980: Lawrence R. Klein 1981: James Tobin 1982: George J. Stigler 1983: Gérard Debreu 1984: Richard Stone 1985: Franco Modigliani 1986: James M. Buchanan Jr. 1987: Robert M. Solow 1988: Maurice Allais 1989: Trygve Haavelmo 1990: Harry M. Markowitz / Merton H. Miller / William F. Sharpe 1991: Ronald H. Coase 1992: Gary S. Becker 1993: Robert W. Fogel / Douglass C. North 1994: John C. Harsanyi / John F. Nash Jr. / Reinhard Selten 1995: Robert E. Lucas Jr. 1996: James A. Mirrlees / William Vickrey 1997: Robert C. Merton / Myron S. Scholes 1998: Amartya Sen 1999: Robert A. Mundell 2000: James J. Heckman / Daniel L. McFadden
2001–present	2001: George A. Akerlof / A. Michael Spence / Joseph E. Stiglitz 2002: Daniel Kahneman / Vernon L. Smith 2003: Robert F. Engle III / Clive W.J. Granger 2004: Finn E. Kydland / Edward C. Prescott 2005: Robert J. Aumann / Thomas C. Schelling 2006: Edmund S. Phelps 2007: Leonid Hurwicz / Eric S. Maskin / Roger B. Myerson 2008: Paul Krugman 2009: Elinor Ostrom / Oliver E. Williamson 2010: Peter A. Diamond / Dale T. Mortensen / Christopher A. Pissarides 2011: Thomas J. Sargent / Christopher A. Sims 2012: Alvin E. Roth / Lloyd S. Shapley 2013: Eugene F. Fama / Lars Peter Hansen / Robert J. Shiller 2014: Jean Tirole 2015: Angus Deaton 2016: Oliver Hart / Bengt Holmström 2017: Richard H. Thaler 2018: William Nordhaus / Paul Romer 2019: Abhijit Banerjee / Esther Duflo / Michael Kremer 2020: Paul Milgrom / Robert B. Wilson 2021: David Card / Joshua Angrist / Guido Imbens 2022: Ben Bernanke / Douglas Diamond / Philip H. Dybvig 2023: Claudia Goldin 2024: Daron Acemoglu / Simon Johnson / James A. Robinson

• 1911 births
• 1991 deaths
• American Nobel laureates
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• American people of Hungarian descent
• Historians of economic thought
• 20th-century American economists
• Nobel laureates in Economics
• National Medal of Science laureates
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