The Center for Economic Policy, together with Thomas Coleman from Harris Public Policy and Allen Sanderson from the University of Chicago Griffin Department of Economics, is hosting a quarterly series of lectures about the people and ideas that have animated economics at Chicago and in the world more widely. The series kicks off in 2019.

History of Chicago Economics Thursday February 4th: "Milton Friedman and The Social Responsibility of Business" with Thomas Coleman, Steven Durlauf, Allen Sanderson (University of Chicago)  

• Register for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
• Resources: Friedman's original essay in the NY Times; Chicago Booth Review essay (and resources); Coleman’s BFI blog entry; Sanderson’s essay on corporate structure in Chicago Life 

Past Lectures

May 21, 2021

Professor Coleman's Spring 2021 History of Chicago Economics talk zoom recording. 

May 14th, 2020

Our spring 2020 lecture revisited Milton Friedman's Monetary History and discussed how historical financial crises can inform our understanding of the financial turmoil resulting from the current pandemic. We met on Zoom and you can find the Zoom recording here and the slides here.

November 22nd, 2019

Our autumn 2019 lecture provided an overview of economics at Chicago, and discussed the idea of "Universal Basic Income". (Click here for slides)

April 26th, 2019

Price Theory (Sanderson) and Gary Becker & Human Capital (Coleman)

Coleman

See "Gary Becker and the Origins of Human Capital" for Thomas Coleman's presentation on the origins of Human Capital theory. (Click here for more detailed notes.)

February 14, 2019

Price Theory (Sanderson) and Milton Friedman's Monetary History (Coleman)

Coleman

"How Friedman & Schwartz Saved the World in 2008" is Thomas Coleman's presentation the origins of human capital and the important role it plays in economics and policy.

Vignettes

"Milton Friedman, Anna Schwartz, and A Monetary History of the US" (Coleman) is a short discussion of monetary history as it unfolded in three US banking crises: 1907-08, the 1930s, and 2008

"The Natural Rate of Unemployment" (Coleman) discusses Milton Friedman's ideas around the natural rate of unemployment: the fact that there is no inflation - unemployment trade-off

"Permanent Income" (Coleman) discusses Milton Friedman's book Theory of the Consumption Function and ideas around the permanent income hypothesis and the marginal propensity to consume.

"Human Capital" (Coleman) discusses some of the history and concepts of human capital, and particularly Gary Becker's contributions.