George Joseph Stigler (1911–1991)

The post-war years saw a generation of remarkable economists who managed amongst themselves to remake the economics discipline and profession. Of this group, perhaps none possessed a better economic intuition or a keener economic mind than George Stigler. Though not as much of a public figure as his close colleague and long time friend, Milton Friedman, Stigler did as much, if not more, to form what became known as the Chicago School of Economics. It was at Chicago that Stigler would conduct research that not only gained him a Nobel Prize in 1982, but which ultimately changed the course of economic analysis. He had a rare talent for asking the right questions and putting forth provisional answers which inevitably provoked the profession and caused it to reconsider commonly held truths. At the same time, no economist was more a reflection of the ideological struggles of post-war America than George Stigler.