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Economic History

The current debate in economics seems to lack a historical perspective. To try to address this deficiency, we decided to launch a Sunday column on ProMarket focusing on the historical dimension of economic ideas.

Economic History

Harold Demsetz and Israel Kirzner Understood That Competition Regulates Markets

Peter J. Boettke
Economists Harold Demsetz and Israel Kirzner challenged the prevailing orthodoxy in microeconomic analysis and public policy beginning with their respective work in the 1960s....
Economic History

How Protests Against the Jim Crow Credit Market Changed the Civil Rights Movement

Mehrsa Baradaran
Before the civil rights movement captured the nation’s attention, activists and community groups were protesting against exploitative credit and exclusionary lending practices rooted in...
Economic History

How a Wave of Corporate Takeovers Ushered In the Gospel of Shareholder Value

Jonathan Levy
In an excerpt from his new book, Ages of American Capitalism, economic historian Jonathan Levy explains how "financiers blew up the postwar industrial corporation...
Academic Capture

Iowa’s “Butter-Margarine War”: T. W. Schultz’s Fight for Academic Freedom

David Seim
During the Second World War, economists at Iowa State College published a pamphlet titled “Putting Dairying on a War Footing,” which would later come...
Antitrust and Competition

James M. Buchanan Trusted Market Mechanisms Because He Trusted Individuals

Alain Marciano
James Buchanan, one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century, believed that individuals were able to voluntarily devise private and market-like institutional...
Economic History

What Stakeholder Capitalism Can Learn From Jensen and Meckling

Alex Edmans
Jensen and Meckling’s 1976 article is an academic classic, but heavily criticized by stakeholder capitalists for arguing that corporate structures should be designed to...
Commentary

An Unusual History: A Conversation Between Two Economists About the Economics Department at the University of Chicago

Sebastian Edwards
In conversation with Sebastian Edwards, Arnold C. Harberger reflects on his time at the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Editor’s note: The...
Antitrust and Competition

Why We Need To Re-think Friedman’s Ideas About Monopolies

David Chan Smith
Friedman’s New York Times Magazine article on the social purpose of business was a specific intervention in the debate over shareholder activism and mentions...
Economic History

Are Intellectual Property Rights Neoliberal? Yes and No

Quinn Slobodian
Today’s global IP regime is often described by critical scholars bluntly as “neoliberal.” But in fact, the topic of intellectual property rights has been...
Economic History

The Most Famous Article on the Theory of the Firm is Widely Misunderstood

Brian Cheffins
Michael Jensen and William Meckling’s famous 1976 Journal of Financial Economics article has been cited nearly 100,000 times and is often regarded as a...
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The publication of the Stigler Center at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

ProMarket is dedicated to discussing how competition tends to be subverted by special interests. The posts represent the opinions of their writers, not necessarily those of the University of Chicago, the Booth School of Business, or its faculty. For more information, please visit ProMarket Policy.