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Senn, Peter R. --- "George Joseph Stigler (1911-92)" [1999] ELECD 52; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781858985169

Section: Chapter 45

Section Title: George Joseph Stigler (1911-92)

Author(s): Senn, Peter R.

Number of pages: 9

Extract:

45 George Joseph Stigler (1911-92)
Peter R. Senn


George Stigler's 1982 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to him for his
seminal studies of industrial structure, the functioning of markets and the
causes and effects of public regulation. He thought `much the most' impor-
tant contribution was his theoretical work on the economics of information
(Stigler, 1986, p. 105). Gary S. Becker (b. 1930) (1993, p. 763) agreed but
also felt that `Stigler's main scientific contributions were to the history of
economic thought and to microeconomics, with a special emphasis on indus-
trial organization' (ibid., p. 762). Ronald Harry Coase, (b. 1910, Nobel Prize
1991), in his sympathetic memoir, wrote that Stigler was `seen at his best' in
his studies of the history of economic thought (Coase, 1991, p. 472). He was
also a pioneer in the development of `public choice economics'.
In addition to his Nobel prize, Stigler received many other honours. Among
them were the National Medal of Science, 1987, and the position of President
of the American Economics Association, 1964, President of the Mont Pelerin
Society (of which he was a founding member), 1976 and President of the
History of Economics Society, 1977. He received eight honorary degrees and
was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1955 and to the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences in 1975. None of these honours was specifically
related to his contributions to the sub-discipline of law and economics.
There is no mention of law and economics ...