Frank Knight

Frank Knight
Born
Frank Hyneman Knight

(1885-11-07)7 November 1885
Died15 April 1972(1972-04-15) (aged 86)
SpouseEthel Verry Knight
Parents
  • Winton Knight (father)
  • Julia Hyneman (mother)
RelativesMelvin Moses Knight (brother)
Bruce Winton Knight (brother)
Academic career
FieldRisk theory
Profit theory
Value theory
InstitutionCornell University
University of Chicago
University of Iowa
School or
tradition
Chicago School of Economics
Alma materMilligan College
University of Tennessee
Cornell University
Doctoral
advisor
Allyn A. Young
Alvin S. Johnson
Doctoral
students
Milton Friedman
George Stigler
Charles E. Lindblom
James M. Buchanan
InfluencesClarence Edwin Ayres
John Bates Clark
Herbert J. Davenport
Max Weber
ContributionsKnightian uncertainty
AwardsFrancis A. Walker Medal (1957)

Frank Hyneman Knight (November 7, 1885 – April 15, 1972) was an American economist who spent most of his career at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the founders of the Chicago School.

Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, George Stigler and James M. Buchanan were all students of Knight at Chicago. Ronald Coase said that Knight, without teaching him, was a major influence on his thinking.[1] F.A. Hayek considered Knight to be one of the major figures in preserving and promoting classical liberal thought in the twentieth century.[2][3]

Paul Samuelson named Knight (along with Harry Gunnison Brown, Allyn Abbott Young, Henry Ludwell Moore, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Jacob Viner, and Henry Schultz) as one of the several "American saints in economics" born after 1860.[4]

  1. ^ Ross B. Emmett (2010). The Elgar Companion to The Chicago School of Economics. Elgar. p. 238. ISBN 978-1849806664.
  2. ^ Hayek, Friedrich A. (2012). "The Transmission of the Ideals of Freedom". Econ Journal Watch. 9 (2): 163–169.
  3. ^ Hayek, F.A. (1967). "The Transmission of the Ideals of Economic Freedom". Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 198 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ Ryan, Christopher Keith (1985). "Harry Gunnison Brown: economist". Iowa State University. Retrieved 7 January 2019.