Identifying a 'Chicago School' of Economics: On the Origins, Diffusion, and Evolving Meanings of a Famous Brand Name

Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Working Paper Series

52 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2021 Last revised: 22 Sep 2022

See all articles by Steven G. Medema

Steven G. Medema

Duke University - Department of Economics

Date Written: November 11, 2021

Abstract

Though the Chicago school has been the subject of no small amount of research over the past several decades, that scholarship has focused largely on persons, ideas, and influence—in short, on the school itself. No attention has been paid to the origins of that label and the avenues via which the notion of a ‘Chicago school’ of economics came to be. This paper attempts to address that lacuna, drawing on both published and archival resources. What emerges is a story of a label of uncertain origin but wrapped up in competing agendas, the first stage in the history of which culminates in 1962 with its rejection by two of the very people who helped birth it.

Suggested Citation

Medema, Steven G., Identifying a 'Chicago School' of Economics: On the Origins, Diffusion, and Evolving Meanings of a Famous Brand Name (November 11, 2021). Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Working Paper Series, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3961525 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3961525

Steven G. Medema (Contact Author)

Duke University - Department of Economics ( email )

213 Social Sciences Building
Box 90097
Durham, NC 27708-0204
United States

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