George J. Stigler
Facts
Photo: Michael P. Weinstein. Nobel Foundation archive
George J. Stigler
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1982
Born: 17 January 1911, Renton, WA, USA
Died: 1 December 1991, Chicago, IL, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Prize motivation: “for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation”
Prize share: 1/1
Life
George Stigler was born in Renton, a suburb of Seattle, USA to immigrant parents. After graduating from the University of Washington in 1931, he spent a year at Northwestern University. There, he developed an interest in economics and decided on an academic career. He studied at the University of Chicago, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1938. Stigler subsequently became one of the key leaders of the Chicago School of Economics.
Work
Through his research, George Stigler made fundamental contributions to the study of market processes and the analysis of the structure of industries. As part of this research, he investigated how markets are affected by economic legislation. His studies of the forces that give rise to regulatory legislation opened up a completely new area of economic research in the intersection of economics and law.
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