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Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76 (1999)

Chapter: George Joseph Stigler

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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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Suggested Citation:"George Joseph Stigler." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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GEORGE JOSEPH STIGLER January I7, 9-December I, 199' BY MILTON FRIEDMAN I CANNOT PRETEND TO obj activity in writing about George Stigler. For nearly sixty years he was either my closest frienc! or one of my closest friends. My debt to him, both personal en c! professional, is beyonc! measure. Despite creep laciness at his cleath, like so many others who knew him, I cannot think of him without an inadvertent smile rising to my lips. He was as quick of wit as of mincI, en c! his wit always hac! a point. His occasional humorous articles such as "A Sketch of the History of Truth in Teaching" (Stigler, 1973) have become classics en c! demonstrate that hac! he, like an earlier Chicago Ph.D. in economics, Stephen Leacock, chosen to become a professional humorist as well as an economist, he wouIc! have achiever! no less fame in the one field! than in the other. George Stigler was one of the great economists of the twentieth or any other century, with a gift for writing matcher! among moclern economists only by John Maynarc! Keynes. Intellectual history was his first field! of specializa- tion. It remained! a lasting love en c! proviclec! a rich seecI- bec! for his scientific work. A creep unclerstancling of the icleas of the great economists of the past gave him a strong foundation on which to built! an analysis of contemporary 341

342 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS issues. Few economists have so consistently en c! successfully combiner! economic theory with empirical analysis, or ranger! so wiclely. Stigler regarclec! economic theory, in the words of Alfrec! Marshall, as "an engine for the discovery of con crete truth," not as a subject of interest in its own right, a branch of mathematics. PERSONAL HISTORY George Stigler was born January 17, 1911, in Renton, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. He was the only chiTc! of Joseph and Elizabeth Hungler Stigler, who had separately migrates! to the Uniter! States at the enc! of the nineteenth century, his father from Bavaria, his mother from what was then Austria-Hungary. George writes that his "father hac! been a brewer until prohibition cirove that activity uncler- ground. Thereafter, he tried a variety of jobs," finally enter- ing the real estate market. "My parents bought rundown places, fixer! them up, en c! soil! them. By the time I was sixteen, I hac! liver! in sixteen different places in Seattle. But my parents hac! a comfortable if nomadic existence" (Stigler, 1 98S, pp. 9-10~ . George went to public schools en c! then to the University of Washington, all in Seattle, receiving a B.A. in 1931. "An insatiable en c! utterly indiscriminate reacler," he "got lots of good grades" at the University of Washington. He said that, when he gracluatec! from college, he hac! "no thought of an academic career", it was the depression en c! jobs in busi- ness were scarce, so he applier! for en c! was awarclec! a fel- lowship at Northwestern University for graduate stucly in the business school, receiving an M.B.A. in 1932 (Stigler, 198S, p. 15~. At Northwestern he developed an interest in economics en c! cleciclec! on an academic career. He returnee! to the University of Washington for one further year of graduate study, en c! then receiver! a tuition scholarship to

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 343 stucly economics at the University of Chicago. There he fount! an intense intellectual atmosphere that captivates! him. Chicago became his intellectual home for the rest of his life, as a student from 1933 to 1936, a faculty member from 1958 to his cleath in 1991, en c! a leacling member of en c! contributor to the "Chicago School" throughout. He receiver! his Ph.D. in 1938. At Chicago, Stigler was particularly influenced by Frank H. Knight, uncler whom he wrote his dissertation a note- worthy feat, since only three or four students ever managect to complete a dissertation uncler Knight in his twentv-ei~ht · ~ . ~ ~ 1 0 J O years on the Chicago faculty. Stimulating en c! influential in both economic analysis en c! social philosophy, Knight was a perfectionist en c! tenclec! to inhibit students who came un- cler his influence. It is a mark of Stigler's character en c! drive that he never succumbec! to that aspect of Knight's influence, rather, he imbiber! what he clescribec! as Knight's "devotion to the pursuit of knowlecige . . . ~ f ~ served commitment to 'truth"' (Stigler, ~ 98S, pp. ~ 7-! 8) . The other faculty members whose influence George stresses! were Jacob Viner' who taught economic theory en c! inter- national economics, John U. Nef, economic historian, en c! their younger colleague Henry Simons, who became a close personal frienc! en c! whose A Positive Program for Laissez Faire greatly influencer! Stinter en c! many of his contemporaries. ~.. . . . . . ~ In He at ~ ~ n up_ lo --o- "At least as important to me," wrote George, "as the fac- ulty were the remarkable students I met at Chicago," en c! he goes on to list W. Allen Wallis, the author of this mem- oir, Kenneth BouIcling en c! Robert Shone from Great Brit- ain, Sune CarIson from Swollen, Paul Samuelson, en c! Albert G. Hart all of whom subsequently hac! clistinguishec! ca- rears ( Stigler, 1 98S, pp. 23-25 ) . I overIappec! George at Chicago for one year, 1934-35, cluring which he, W. Allen Wallis, en c! I former! what prover!

344 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS to be a lifelong friendship. As it happened, all three of our future spouses were also students at Chicago. George was to marry Margaret Mack, always known as Chick, who was ma- joring in social science. Allen wouic! marry Anne Armstrong, an art history major, en c! I marries! Rose Director, whose major was economics. We soon former! a sextuple whose lives were intertwinec! from then on. In 1936 George acceptec! an appointment as an assistant professor at Iowa State College (now University), and shortly thereafter was marries! to Margaret "Chick" Mack. George en c! Chick hac! three sons: Stephen, a professor of statistics at the University of Chicago, David, a corporate lawyer, en c! Joseph, a businessman. The family sufferer! a tragic Toss in 1970, when Chick flier! unexpectecIly, without any advance warning. George never remarried. George acceptec! an appointment at the University of Min- nesota in 1938 en c! then went on leave in 1942 to work first at the National Bureau of Economic Research en c! later at the Statistical Research Group of Columbia University, a group directed by Allen Wallis that was engaged in war research on behalf of the armec! services. When the war antler! in 1945, George returnee! to the University of Min nesota, but he remainec! only one year, leaving in 1946 to accept a professorship at Brown University. That simple state- ment conceals a traumatic experience. In George's worcis: "In the spring of 1946 I receiver! the offer of a professor- ship from the University of Chicago and, of course, was clelightec! at the prospect. The offer was contingent upon approval by the central administration after a personal in- terview. I went to Chicago, met with the president, Ernest Colwell because Robert Hutchins was ill that clay en c! I was vetoed! I was too empirical, Colwell saicI, en c! no doubt that clay I was. So the professorship was offerer! to Milton Friedman, and President Colwell and I had launched the

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 345 Chicago School" (Stigler, 1988, p. 40). It speaks volumes for George's character that the incident never cast the slight- est shallow on our friendship. In 1946 George en c! I were two of the thirty-six partici- pants at a conference in Switzerlanc! convener! by Friecirich A. Hayck to discuss the ciangers to a free society. The Mont Pelerin Society was founclec! at that conference en c! has since grown en c! flourished, providing a forum for mem- bers from all over the worlc! to discuss the issues involves! in achieving en c! maintaining political en c! economic freedom. An active member of the society until his cleath, George servec! as its president from 1976 to 1978. After a year at Brown, George mover! to Columbia, where he remainec! until 1958, despite several attempts by Theodore Schultz, chairman of the Chicago Department of Econom- ics, to bring him to Chicago. In 1958 Allen Wallis, then clean of the University of Chicago business school, persuaclec! him to accept the Charles R. Walgreen professorship of American institutions. George remainec! at Chicago for the rest of his life. At Chicago he became an editor of the Journal of Political Economy; established the Industrial Orga- nization Workshop, which achiever! recognition as the key testing grounc! for contributions to the fielc! of industrial organization, en c! in 1977 founclec! the Center for the Stucly of the Economy en c! the State, serving as its director until his cleath. In the academic year 1957-58, George was a fellow at the Center for Advance c! Stucly in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. From 1971 to his cleath, George was a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, en c! spent part of al- most every year at Hoover. George was president of the American Economic Associa- tion in 1964, en c! of the History of Economics Society in 1977. He was electec! to the National Academy of Sciences

346 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS in 1975. He receiver! the Alfrec! Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1982 "for his seminal studies of inclus- trial structures, functioning of markets en c! causes en c! ef- fects of public regulation." He receiver! the National Mecial of Science from Ronalc! Reagan in 1987. George's governmental activities incluclec! service as a member of the attorney generaT's National Committee to Stucly the Antitrust Laws, 1954-55, chairman, Fecleral Price Statistics Review Committee, 1960-61, member, Blue Rib- bon Pane! of the Department of Defense, ~ 969-70, vice- chairman, Securities Investor Protection Corporation, 1970- 73, co-chairman, Blue Ribbon Telecommunications Task Force, Illinois Commerce Commission, 1990-91. A wore! about George as a person: In the nearly six cle- cacles of our friendship, I never knew him to clo a mean or hurtful or unworthy thing to anyone. An icleal frienc! in time of trouble, he wouIc! go to any lengths to be helpful. He always appearec! casual en c! unhurried, seeming to have ample time for golf (his favorite sport), tennis, bridge, carpentry, photography (his favorite hobby), casual talk with friends, consultations with students, en c! constructive en c! cletailec! criticisms of the writings of his students en c! aca- clemic friends. Yet, he also was increclibly productive, turn- ing out a steady stream of fundamental contributions. Truly, as his son Stephen sail! at a memorial service, "My father hac! phenomenal energy." One feature of George's personality that he clic! his best to conceal was his extreme personal sensitivity. His smart cracks were in part a way of covering that sensitivity, as was his half-embarrassec! laugh. He was as sensitive to others as to himself. The stiletto concealer! in his humor was always meant for ideas or policies, never ad hominem unless "An Economist Plays with Blocs" ( 1 954), his brilliant title for an

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 347 article on Galbraith's theory of countervailing power, can be so interpreted. George was a clelightful correspondent. Serious en c! pro- founc! discussion never came without an interiarcling of amusing comments. In a letter from London in 1948 when he was giving Five Lectures on Economic Problems ~ ~ 949), after remarking on the inconvertibility of the pounc! en c! the ineclible, still-rationec! foocI, he concluclecI, "So here I am losing weight and gaining pounds." George was an extremely valuable colleague. He proviclec! much of the energy en c! drive to the interaction among members of the Chicago economics department, business school, en c! law school that came to be known at the Chi- cago School. His workshop on inclustrial organization was an outgrowth of a law school seminar starter! by Aaron Di- rector, which George cooperatec! in running when he came to Chicago. His relations were especially close with Aaron, Gary Becker, Richarc! Posner, HaroIc! Demsetz, en c! myself, enhancing significantly the scientific productivity of all of us. HISTORY OF THOUGHT STIGLER AS SCIENTIST Stigler's cloctoral dissertation, publisher! as Production and Distribution Theories (1941), was a historical survey of neo- cIassical theories that remains the definitive study of its sub- ject. That book was follower! by a stoutly flow of perceptive, thoughtful, en c! beautifully written articles en c! books inter- preting the contributions of his predecessors, some of which were collected! in Essays in the History of Economics (1965~. Throughout, Stigler's interest was in "the essential struc- ture of the . . . analytical system" of the authors whose work he examined (Stigler, ~ 969, p. 220~ . In judging that analyti

348 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Cal system, he placer! great stress on its implications for observable phenomena. "Surprising as it may souncI, no previous scholar hac! ever examiner! the clevelopment of the cliscipline with anything intellectual progress hac! to be measurer! in terms of its ability to generate empirically refutable propositions" (Rosenberg, 1993, p. 836~. Stigler tried not only to identify such propositions but to put them to the test, often with ciata that wouIc! have been available to the author whose ~ bite the same insistence that work he was examining. During most of Stigler's professional career, the history of economic thought was in the cloIcirums as a field! of stucly. His writing played a major role in keeping the field alive en c! enhancing its attractiveness. By the enc! of his career, the field! was flourishing, thanks in part to the example he set en c! to the new directions for research that he pioneered. PRICE THEORY George's first important publication after his cloctoral thesis was a textbook, The Theory of Competitive Price (1942), which was follower! by reviser! versions uncler the title The Theory of Price in ~ 946, ~ 952, ~ 966, en c! ~ 987. Its systematic linking of highly abstract theory to observable phenomena is unique among intermediate textbooks in price theory, as is its con- cise yet rigorous exposition. That feature, according to Tho- mas Sowell, one of his students, "made it probably the least reaciable thing Stigler ever wrote. It was not a matter of convoluter! writing or confused thought Stifler was never · . . ~· . . ~. . --a-- - - --a- - - ---- -- - - gUllty ot eltner ot tnese common academic sins but of excessive condensation that required painstakingly slow pon- clering over every concentrates! thought. If the book hac! been three times as Tong, it could have been read in half the time. Still, it remainec! something of a classic, though Stigler himself made many a wry joke about its supposedly

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 349 meager sales. It was the kinc! of book that teachers of price theory courses react themselves, while they assignee! some other text to the class" (Sowell, 1993, pp. 785-86~. The linkage of fact en c! theory in his textbook foreshacI- owoc! his subsequent scientific work. His many contribu- tions to economic theory were all a byproduct of seeking to unclerstanc! the real woricI, en c! nearly all lee! to an attempt to provicle some quantitative evidence to test the theory or to provide empirical counterparts to theoretical concepts. An early example of the latter is an article on "The Cost of Subsistence" (1945), which starts, "Elaborate investiga- tions have been macle of the acloquacy of cliets at various income levels, en c! a consiclerable number of 'low-cost,' 'mocI- erate,' en c! 'expensive' cliets have been recommenclec! to consumers. Yet, so far as I know, no one has cleterminec! the minimum cost of obtaining the amounts of calories, proteins, minerals, en c! vitamins which these studies accept as acloquate or optimum." George then set himself to cleter- mine the minimum cost cliet, in the process producing one of the earliest formulations of a linear programming prob- lem in economics, for which he fount! an approximate so- lution, explaining that "there cloes not appear to be any direct methoc! of fincling the minimum of a linear function subject to linear constraints." Two years later George Dantzig proviclec! such a direct method, the simplex method, now wiclely user! in many economic en c! inclustrial applications. George's approximate solution very close to the best possible one cost very little, far less than the stanciarc! Tow- cost acloquate cliet, demonstrating that those cliets conic! not be clefenclec! as "scientific" but reflected! mainly allow- ance for taste en c! variety rather than simply for nutritive acloquacy. The estimatec! cost of such low-cost cliets has sub- sequently become the basis for the wiclely user! poverty lev

350 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS els of income, assuring the continues! significance of this finding. History of thought apart, George's impact was greatest en c! most lasting in the three fielcis that were singlet! out in the Nobel citation, those he labeler! the economics of in- formation, the theory of economic regulation, en c! the or- ganization of industry. "The Economics of Information" is the title of a seminal article (Stigler, 1961) that gave birth to an essentially new area of stucly for economists. In his intellectual autobiogra- phy, George termec! it, "My most important contribution to economic theory" (Stigler, 198S, pp. 79-80~. The article be- gins, "One shouic! hardily have to tell academicians that information is a valuable resource: knowlecige is power. An c! yet it occupies a slum dwelling in the town of economics. Mostly it is ignored." Stigler then proceeclec! to illustrate the importance of subjecting information to economic analysis with two examples: the dispersion of prices en c! the role of advertising (Stigler, 1961, pp. 213-25~. This article is a splendid illustration of several of Stigler's signal virtues: creativity (which he defined as consisting "of looking at familiar things or icleas in a new way"), the ca- pacity to extract new insights about those seemingly famil- iar things, en c! the ability to state his main points in a pro- vocative en c! eminently reaciable way. As he wrote in his Nobel memorial lecture The proposal to study the economics of information was promptly and widely accepted. Within a decade and a half, the literature had be- come so extensive and the theorists working in the field so prominent, that the subject was given a separate classification in the Index of Economic Ar- ticles, and more than a hundred articles a year are now devoted to the subject. The absence of controversy was certainly no tribute to the definitive- ness of my exposition. . The absence of controversy was due instead to

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 351 the fact that no established scientific theory was being challenged by this work; in fact, all I was challenging was the neglect of a promising subject (Stigler, 1983, p. 539~. The historian of economic thought practicing his craft on himself. ECONOMIC REGULATION Starting from the traclitional view that government regu- lation was instituter! for the protection of the public, Stigler was struck by the absence of any quantitative studies of the actual effect of regulation. His first effort to remecly this was clirectec! at the regulation of the prices of public utili- ties. The result was a 1962 article written jointly with Claire FriecIlancI, his Tong-time associate, entitles! "What Can Regu- lators Regulate? The Case of Electricity," which concluclec! that regulation of electric utilities hac! proclucec! no signifi- cant effect on rates charged. This was follower! two years later by "Public Regulation of the Securities Market," which concluclec! that purchasers of new stock issues fares! no bet- ter (or worse) after the creation of the Securities en c! Ex- change Commission than before.) These articles, like "The Economics of Information," opener! a floodgate of empiri- cal studies of the effects of economic regulation. Econo- mists conic! no longer simply take it for grantee! that the effects of regulation corresponclec! to the states! intentions.2 These essays "also poser! a basic problem: If regulation floes not generally achieve its states! objectives, why have so many agencies been establisher! en c! kept in existence?" (SchmaTensee, ~ 987, p. 499) . "The Theory of Economic Regulation" (Stigler, 1971) presents Stigler's answer to that question. The "central thesis of the article," Stigler wrote, "is that, as a rule, regulation is acquirer! by the industry en c! is clesignec! en c! operates! primarily for its benefit." He notes that two "alternative views of the regulation of inclus

352 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS try are widely held. The first is that regulation is instituted primarily for the protection and benefit of the public at large or some large subdivision of the public . . . The sec- ond view is essentially that the political process defies ratio- nal explanation." He then gives example after example to support his own thesis, which by now has become the or- thodox view in the profession, concluding, "The idealistic view of public regulation is deeply imbedded in professional economic thought . . . The fundamental vice of such a Eview] is that it misdirects attention" to preaching to the regulators rather than chancing their incentives. Stigler's analysis fed the emerging field that has since come to be called "public choice" economics: the shift from viewing the political market as not susceptible to economic analysis, as one in which disinterested politicians and bu- reaucrats pursue the "public interest," to viewing it as one in which the participants are seeking, as in the economic market, to pursue their own interest, and hence subjectto analysis with the usual tools of economics. The seminal work that deserves much of the credit for launching public choice, The Catcutus of Consent, by lames Buchanan and Gordon O O Tullock, appeared in the same year as the Stigler-Friedland article. "Smith's Travels on the Ship of State," published in the same year as "The Theory of Economic Regulation," raises the same question on a broader scale. Smith gives self-inter- est pride of place in analyzing the economic market, but he does not give it the same role in analyzing the political market. Smith's failure to do so constitutes Stigler's main- indeed, nearly only criticism of the Wealth of Nations, that "stupendous palace erected upon the granite of self inter- est" (Rosenberg, 1993, p. 835~. The same theme pervades many of Stigler's later publications. The Organization of Industry (1968) is the title of a book

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 353 whose "main content," as Stigler says in the preface, "is a reprinting of 17 articles I have written over the past two clecacles kinclucling "Economics of Information"] in the area of inclustrial organization . . . Although the main topics in inclustrial organization are toucher! upon, the touch is of- ten light. The ratio of hypotheses to reasonably persuasive confirmation is clistressingly high in all of economic litera- ture, en c! it must be my chief en c! meager defense that I am not the worst sinner in the congregation." Stigler's main contribution to the fielcI, both in this book en c! later writ- ing, was the use of empirical evidence to test hypotheses clesignec! to explain features of inclustrial organization. Ar- ticle after article combines subtle theoretical analysis with substantial nuggets of empirical evidence, presented so ca- sually as to conceal the care with which the ciata were com- pilec! en c! the effort that was expenclec! to determine what ciata were both relevant en c! accessible. These articles recorc! the shift in Stigler's views on antitrust from initial support of an activist antitrust policy to skepticism about even a minimalist policy that lee! up to his path-breaking article on "The Theory of Economic Regulation" (Stigler, 1971~. Two other facets of Stigler's contributions deserve men- tion. First, his essays written for the general public, col- lectec! in three volumes, The Intellectuals and the Marketplace (1963), The Citizen and the State (1975), en c! The Economist as Preacher ~ 982). "There he Ethe intelligent layman] will fins! a potpourri of wit en c! seriousness blenclec! with a high writ- ing style" (Demsetz, 1982, p. 656~. Second, his role as ecli- tor en c! reviewer. "For 19 years Stigler was a very successful editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Uncler his leacler- ship this journal soliclifiec! its high reputation among econo- mists" (Becker, ~993, p. 765). His complete bibliography lists 73 reviews in 24 publications ranging from strictly pro- fessional, like the Journal of Political Economy (22) en c! the

354 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS American Economic Review (10), to the popular, like the Wall Street Journal (5), en c! the New York Times (3), en c! ciating from 1939 to 1989. Stigler's last book, his intellectual autobiography, Mem- oirs of an Unregulated Economist (1988), is a clelight to react. As I clescribec! it at the time: "Stigler's memoirs are a gem: in style, in wit, en c! above all, in substance, they reflect accurately his own engaging personality en c! his extraorcli- narily diverse contributions to our science." STIGLER AS TEACHER Stigler was also a great teacher. Many who knew him only casually, especially in his younger years, were offended by his wit, which conic! be biting, en c! his unerring ability to Sac! just the right response to deflate pomposity en c! pre- tentiousness. His students never hac! that reaction. He was uniformly available, tolerant of their lack of unclerstancling of subtle points, and willing to go to any length to help them. He inspirer! them by his own high stanciarcis en c! instiller! a respect for economics as a serious subject con- cerned with real problems. As John Lothian, one of my students who took several courses from Stigler, wrote me after Stigler's cleath: "His lectures taught me how to think about economics . . . His public persona was one of not suffering fools glacITy, but that certainly clic! not come across in the classroom or in his incliviclual meetings with us to talk over what we were doing in our papers for the course . . . He seemed quite willing to put up with foolishness from us as long as it seemed like we might ultimately get somewhere with what we were doing."3 Another student of Stigler's, Thomas Sowell, wrote: "What Stigler really taught, whether the course was industrial organization or the history of economic thought, was intellectual integrity, analytical rigor, respect for evi

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 355 clence en c! skepticism towarc! the fashions en c! enthusiasms that come and go" (Sowell, ~993, p. 788). Stigler supervisec! many cloctoral dissertations at both Columbia en c! the University of Chicago, a sharp contrast with the recorc! of Frank Knight, uncler whom Stigler wrote his thesis. His students come close to dominating the field! of inclustrial organization.4 FINAL WORD I give final wore! on Stigler to his colleague en c! fellow recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sci- ence, Ronalc! Coase: He is equally at home in the history of ideas, economic theory, and the study of politics. Even more remarkable is the variety of ways in which he handles a problem; he moves from the marshaling of high theory to apho- rism to detailed statistical analysis, a mingling of treatments.... It is by a magic of his own that Stigler arrives at conclusions which are both unex- pected and important. Even those who have reservations about his conclu- sions will find that a study of his argument has enlarged their understand- ing of the problem being discussed and that aspects are revealed which were previously hidden. Stigler never deals with a subject which he does not illuminate. And he expresses his views in a style uniquely Stiglerian, penetrating, lively, and spiced with wit. His writings are easy to admire, a joy to read, and impossible to imitate (Coase, 1991, p. 472~. NOTES 1. Both essays are reprinted in The Citizen and the State: Essays on Regulation, pp. 61-77, 78-100. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. 2. Sam Peltzman recalculated the empirical results in the Stigler- Friedland article to correct a mistake in the original. His thought- ful and sophisticated article brings the story up to date (Peltzman, 1993). 3. Personal letter dated Dec. 3, 1991. 4. According to Claire Friedland, Stigler's associate for many years, he served on more than forty thesis committees at Chicago,

356 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS perhaps forty more at Columbia, and chaired a considerable frac- tion of those committees. REFERENCES Becker, G. S. 1993. George Joseph Stigler. 7. Polit. Econ. 101:761-67. Coase, R. 1991. George J. Stigler. In Remembering the University of Chicago, ed. E. Shils, pp. 469-78. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Demsetz, H. 1982. The 1982 Nobel Prize in economics. Science 218:655- 57. Peltzman, S. 1993. George Stigler's contribution to the economic analysis of regulation. 7. Polit. Econ. 101:818-32. Rosenberg, N. 1993. George Stigler: Adam Smith's best friend. 7. Polit. Econ. 101 :833-48. Schmalensee, R. 1987. The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, vol. 4, eds. J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, and P. Newman, pp. 499-500. New York: Stockton Press. Sowell, T. 1993. A student's eye view of George Stigler. J. Polit. Econ. 101 :784-92. Stigler, G. J. 1961. The economics of information. 7. Polit. Econ. 69:213-25. . 1969. Does economics have a useful past? Hist. Polit. Econ. 1 :217-30. . 1971. The theory of economic regulation. Bell J. Econ. Man. Sci. 2:3-21. 1973. A sketch of the history of truth in teaching. 7. Polit. Econ. 81 :491-95. 1975. The Citizen and the State: Essays on Regulation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1983. Nobel lecture: The process and progress of economics. f. Polit. Econ. 91 :529-45. 1988. Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist. New York: Basic Books.

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1941 357 Production and Distribution Theories: 1870-1895. New York: Macmillan. 1945 The cost of subsistence. 7. Farm Econ. 27: 303-14. 1946 The Theory of Price. New York: Macmillan. 1947 Domestic Servants in the United States, 1900-1940. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research. The kinky oligopoly demand curve and rigid prices. 7. Polit. Econ. 55:432-49. Trends in Output and Employment. New York: National Bureau of Eco- nomic Research. 1949 Five Lectures on Economic Problems. New York: Longmans, Green Co. 1950 Employment and Compensation in Education. New York: National Bu- reau of Economic Research. 1954 The economist plays with blocs. Am. Econ. Rev. Pap. Proc. 44:7-14. 1956 Trends in Employment in the Service Industries. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 1957 With D. M. Blank. Supply and Demand for Scientific Personnel. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.

358 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1958 The goals of economic policy. 7. Bus. 5:169-76. 1963 Capital and Rates of Return in Manufacturing Industries. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press. The Intellectual and the Market Place, and Other Essays. New York: Free Press of Glencoe. 1965 Essays in the History of Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1967 Imperfections in the capital market. 7. Polit. Econ. 75:287-92. 1968 The Organization of Industry. Homewood, Ill.: Irwin. 1970 Director's law of public income redistribution. 7. Law Econ. 13:1-10. 1975 The Citizen and the State: Essays on Regulation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1977 With G. S Becker. De gustibus non est disputandum. Am. Econ. Rev. 67:76-90. 1982 The Economist as Preacher, and Other Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1986 The Essence of Stigler, eds. K. R. Leube and T. G. Moore. Stanford, Calif: Hoover Institution Press.

G E O R G E J O S E P H S T I G L E R 1988 Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist. New York: Basic Books. 1990 359 The place of Marshall's Principles in the development of economics. In Centenary Essays on Alfred Marshall, ed. J. K. Whitaker, pp. 1-13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Biographic Memoirs: Volume 76 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works. Each biographical essay was written by a member of the Academy familiar with the professional career of the deceased. For historical and bibliographical purposes, these volumes are worth returning to time and again.

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