Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman
Friedman in 2004
Born(1912-07-31)July 31, 1912
New York City, U.S
DiedNovember 16, 2006(2006-11-16) (aged 94)
San Francisco, California, U.S
Education
Political partyRepublican[3]
Spouse
(m. 1936)
Children
Academic career
FieldMacroeconomics
Institution
School or
tradition
Chicago School; Classical Liberalism
Doctoral
advisor
Simon Kuznets
Doctoral
students
Phillip Cagan
Harry Markowitz
Lester G. Telser[1]
David I. Meiselman
Neil Wallace
Miguel Sidrauski
Edgar L. Feige
Thomas Sowell
Influences
Contributions
Awards
Information at IDEAS / RePEc
Signature

Milton Friedman (/ˈfrdmən/ ; 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 complexity of stabilization policy.[4] With George Stigler, Friedman was among the intellectual leaders of the Chicago school of economics, a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago that rejected Keynesianism in favor of monetarism until the mid-1970s, when it turned to new classical macroeconomics heavily based on the concept of rational expectations.[5] Several students, young professors and academics who were recruited or mentored by Friedman at Chicago went on to become leading economists, including Gary Becker,[6] Robert Fogel,[7] and Robert Lucas Jr.[8]

Friedman's challenges to what he called "naive Keynesian theory"[9] began with his interpretation of consumption, which tracks how consumers spend. He introduced a theory which would later become part of mainstream economics and he was among the first to propagate the theory of consumption smoothing.[4][10] During the 1960s, he became the main advocate opposing Keynesian government policies,[11] and described his approach (along with mainstream economics) as using "Keynesian language and apparatus" yet rejecting its initial conclusions.[12] He theorized that there existed a natural rate of unemployment and argued that unemployment below this rate would cause inflation to accelerate.[a][13] He argued that the Phillips curve was in the long run vertical at the "natural rate" and predicted what would come to be known as stagflation.[14] Friedman promoted a macroeconomic viewpoint known as monetarism and argued that a steady, small expansion of the money supply was the preferred policy, as compared to rapid, and unexpected changes.[15] His ideas concerning monetary policy, taxation, privatization, and deregulation influenced government policies, especially during the 1980s. His monetary theory influenced the Federal Reserve's monetary policy in response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis.[16]

After retiring from the University of Chicago in 1977, and becoming Emeritus professor in economics in 1983,[17] Friedman served as an advisor to Republican U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Conservative British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.[18] His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal government intervention in social matters. In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax, school vouchers,[19] and opposition to the war on drugs and support for drug liberalization policies. His support for school choice led him to found the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, later renamed EdChoice.[20][21]

Friedman's works cover a broad range of economic topics and public policy issues.[17] His books and essays have had global influence, including in former communist states.[22][23][24][25] A 2011 survey of economists commissioned by the EJW ranked Friedman as the second-most popular economist of the 20th century, following only John Maynard Keynes.[26] Upon his death, The Economist described him as "the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century ... possibly of all of it".[27]

  1. ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 89. ISBN 978-0230604094.
  2. ^ "APS Member History".
  3. ^ Doherty, Brian (June 1995). "Best of Both Worlds: An Interview with Milton Friedman". Reason. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  4. ^ a b "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1976". Nobel Prize. 1976. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
  5. ^ "The Chicago School". Commanding Heights. PBS. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  6. ^ "Our Legacy". Becker Friedman Institute. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  7. ^ Chicago Remembers Milton Friedman, Sanderson, Allen; 2012, University of Chicago, [1]
  8. ^ Van Overtveldt, Johan (2009). The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business. Agate Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1572846494.
  9. ^ "Milton Friedman". Commanding Heights. PBS. October 1, 2000. Archived from the original on September 8, 2011. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Friedman-2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "Milton Friedman – Economist as Public Intellectual" Archived May 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Dallasfed.org (April 1, 2016). Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
  12. ^ Mark Skousen (2009). The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers. M.E. Sharpe. p. 407. ISBN 978-0765622273.
  13. ^ Friedman, Milton (1968). The Role of Monetary Policy. Essential Readings in Economics. Macmillan Education UK. pp. 215–231. ISBN 978-0333594520.
  14. ^ Krugman, Paul R. (1995). Peddling prosperity: economic sense and nonsense in the age of diminished expectations. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 43. ISBN 978-0393312928.
  15. ^ Doherty, Brian (June 1, 1995). "Best of Both Worlds". Reason Magazine. Archived from the original on October 11, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
  16. ^ Edward Nelson (April 13, 2011). "Friedman's Monetary Economics in Practice" Archived December 31, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. "in important respects, the overall monetary and financial policy response to the crisis can be viewed as Friedman's monetary economics in practice. ... Friedman's recommendations for responding to a financial crisis largely lined up with the principal financial and monetary policy measures taken since 2007". "Review" in Journal of Economic Literature (December 2012). 50#4. pp. 1106–1109.
  17. ^ a b Caldwell, Bruce. "Milton Friedman". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  18. ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 208. ISBN 978-0230604094.
  19. ^ "Milton Friedman (1912–2006)" Archived January 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Econlib.org. Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
  20. ^ Maureen Sullivan (July 30, 2016). "Milton Friedman's Name Disappears From Foundation, But His School-Choice Beliefs Live On". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 21, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  21. ^ "Friedman Foundation changes name to focus on benefits of educational choice". Atlas Network. July 29, 2016. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  22. ^ "Capitalism and Friedman" (editorial). The Wall Street Journal. November 17, 2006.
  23. ^ Václav Klaus (January 29, 2007). "Remarks at Milton Friedman Memorial Service". Archived from the original on July 2, 2007. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
  24. ^ Johan Norberg (October 2008). "Defaming Milton Friedman: Naomi Klein's disastrous yet popular polemic against the great free market economist" Archived April 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Reason Magazine. Washington, D.C.
  25. ^ Friedman 1999, p. 506.
  26. ^ William L Davis, Bob Figgins, David Hedengren and Daniel B. Klein (May 2011). "Economic Professors' Favorite Economic Thinkers, Journals, and Blogs" Archived December 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Econ Journal Watch. 8(2). pp. 126–146.
  27. ^ "Milton Friedman, a giant among economists". The Economist. November 23, 2006. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.


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