fbpx
Wikipedia

Armen Alchian

January 01, 1970

Armen Albert Alchian (/ˈɑːltʃiən/; April 12, 1914 – February 19, 2013) was an American economist. He spent almost his entire career at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). A major microeconomic theorist, he is known as one of the founders of new institutional economics and widely acknowledged for his work on property rights.

Armen A. Alchian
Born(1914-04-12)April 12, 1914
Fresno, California, U.S.
DiedFebruary 19, 2013(2013-02-19) (aged 98)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
EducationStanford University (BA, PhD)
Academic career
Institutions
FieldMicroeconomics
Property rights
Law and economics[1]
School or
tradition		New Institutional Economics
Chicago School
Neoclassical economics
Doctoral
students		William F. Sharpe,[2] David R. Henderson,[3] Steven N. S. Cheung,[4] Jerry Jordan[5]
InfluencesAdam Smith,[6] Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek
Awards

Early life and education edit

Armen Albert Alchian was born on April 12, 1914, in Fresno, California, to Armenian-American parents. His father, Alexander H. Alchian (1884–1979),[8] was born in Erzurum, Ottoman Empire[9] and emigrated to the U.S. in 1901,[10] while his mother Lily Normart (1889–1976) was born to Armenian immigrant parents in Fresno.[11] Her parents were among the first Armenians to settle in the San Joaquin Valley and she was the first Armenian born in Fresno.[11][12] His parents married in 1909,[13] and Armen had a younger brother, Robert Haig Alchian (1917–1995).[14][15] His father worked as a musician and a jeweler and the family was of "modest means."[16] He grew up in the Armenian community, which was initially "subject to intense discrimination."[17] He himself was reportedly subject to anti-Armenian discrimination early in his life.[18] In the 1920s his family hosted General Andranik, an Armenian national hero, in their home for several months.[19] Alchian was called "the Armenian Adam Smith" by Michael Intriligator.[20][9]

Alchian attended Fresno High School, where he excelled academically and athletically.[14] He initially enrolled in Fresno State College in 1932 and transferred to Stanford University in 1934, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1936.[14] He earned his PhD in Philosophy from Stanford in 1943.[14][21] His dissertation was titled "The Effects of Changes in the General Wage Structure."[14] Anthony J. Culyer quoted Kenneth Arrow as saying that Alchian was the "brightest economics student Stanford ever had."[22]

Career edit

Alchian worked as a teaching assistant at Stanford (1937–40),[21] and then in 1940–41 he worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Harvard University and in 1942 at the University of Oregon as an instructor.[16] He went on to serve in the Army Air Forces as a statistician between 1942 and 1946.[21][23]

Alchian joined the Department of Economics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1946.[24] He was initially assistant professor (until 1952), then associate professor (until 1958), and eventually named professor in 1958.[21][20] He retired from UCLA in 1984 and was named professor emeritus of economics.[24][21] It was not until 2007, at the age of 93, that he closed his campus office.[24]

In classroom, Alchian adopted the Socratic method and disliked the traditional lecture method.[25][26] James M. Buchanan, briefly a colleague in the late 1960s, classified Alchian as "the best blackboard economist" he had ever known.[27] In 2006 John Riley, chair of the UCLA economics department, stated that Alchian was the "father of the modern-day economics department at UCLA, and set the future for it."[28] William R. Allen noted that the department's "golden age" was from 1950 to 1980 because of Alchian's presence and leadership in the department.[28]

Alchian was also affiliated with the RAND Corporation between 1946 and 1964 and was a consultant to business firms.[21] At RAND, he is remembered for his work on the hidden costs of regulation.[24] Alchian was the first economist to be employed at RAND and "became the conduit through which many Chicago stalwarts such as Ronald Coase, Gary Becker, and others received lucrative consultancies from RAND."[29] Alchian was also involved for around 20 years with the Law and Economics Center, initially affiliated with the University of Rochester, which provided "insight into economic theory to legal scholars and judges."[24] Timothy Muris opined that Alchian was "unexcelled in teaching economics to lawyers."[30]

Research edit

Alchian, an applied economist,[7] has been described by Robert Higgs as a master of applied price theory.[26] Alchian was a neoclassical economist,[31][32] specifically of the Chicago School.[33][34] Along with Harold Demsetz, Alchian is considered to be the founder of the "UCLA tradition",[20][35] alternatively known as the Los Angeles School.[36] Read explains: "Theirs is a school which shares some similarities with Chicago’s emphasis on the free market, Harvard’s tradition of institutional studies, and the strategic thrust of both the RAND Corporation and of the Hoover Institution, to which both contributed intellectually."[36]

Alchian was also influenced by the Austrian School,[41] especially by the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.[42][43] He was influenced by Mises' Human Action (1949).[44] Alchian famously interviewed Hayek in 1978,[45][46] during which Alchian told him that he was particularly influenced by two of his articles: "Economics and Knowledge" (1937) and "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945).[47] In his turn, Alchian has influenced contemporary Austrian School economists.[48]

Alchian, along with James M. Buchanan and Ronald Coase, served as a bridge between the "Old" and "New" Chicago School.[49] Boettke and Candela argue that these three economists founded the following branches in economics: New Institutional Economics, Law and Economics, and the economics of property rights.[49] Indeed, Alchian is widely considered one of the founders of the New Institutional Economics.[50][a] According to Robert Higgs Alchian had the greatest influence, aside from Coase, "in creating and fostering what has come to be known as the New Institutional Economics, one of the most notable improvements in mainstream economics during the past half century."[26]

A large portion of Alchian's contribution is in property rights.[52][b][54] Henderson argued that Alchian has been most impactful on the economic analysis of property rights and summarized his work on it as follows: "You tell me the rules and I'll tell you what outcomes to expect."[18] Alchian opined that "In essence, economics is the study of property rights over resources."[55] Peter Boettke noted in 2015 that Alchian is "recognized as the founder of what was called 'property rights economics' in which he had to re-introduce to the economics profession the important role that property rights play in the determination of economic performance."[56]

While working at RAND in 1954, Alchian conducted the first event study to infer what kind of fuel material was used in the development of hydrogen bombs, the construction of which were secret at the time. He successfully identified lithium as the fusion fuel through publicly available financial data, finding only the stock of Lithium Corporation of America suddenly increased around the hydrogen bomb test Castle Bravo. However, the paper was confiscated and destroyed because it was seen as a threat to national security.[57]

Notable publications edit

See also: Alchian–Allen effect

Alchian was not prolific and did not author many books and articles.[20][7] However, his few published works are widely cited.[18][20] His writing style is characterized with lack of mathematical formality and is known for its straightforward prose.[26] Harold Demsetz noted that his works are "largely uncluttered with mathematics."[20] Henderson praised his clear writing, noting that Alchian was "one of the last economists of his generation to communicate mainly in words and not equations."[18] According to Susan L. Woodward he "had no use for formal models that did not teach us to look somewhere new in the known world, nor had he any patience for findings that relied on fancy econometrics."[58]

In 1964 Alchian and William R. Allen co-authored University Economics, an influential general textbook[18] that has undergone six editions under two titles.[24][12] It appeared in 1969 under the name Exchange and Production.[21] The collection of his works was first published in 1977 by Liberty Fund under the title Economic Forces at Work, which contains his main 18 papers.[21] In 2006 Liberty Fund published The Collected Works of Armen A. Alchian in two volumes.[12][51]

His most significant articles are:[21]

  • "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory" (1950):[59] It is Alchian's first major paper that brought him attention.[24][18] Called one of the "most important contributions to the economic literature,"[60] the article "pioneered the idea that the price system is a Darwinian mechanism in which efficient behaviors survive, regardless of the motives of economic agents."[7] According to Karl Brunner, Alchian "demonstrates that even in the absence of rational, profit maximizing or any purposive behavior the economic system produces a rational ordering of resource use patterns."[61] James M. Buchanan described it as a "seminal" paper, which has a "genuinely innovative quality."[27]
  • "Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production" (1963)[62] was completed for the RAND Corporation by 1949, but was not published until 14 years later because it relied on military classified data. A pioneering work,[63] Linda Argote and Dennis Epple noted that it stimulated interest in organizational learning curve,[64] while Hubbard stated that it is "credited as the first empirical investigation of learning curves – an important feature of many industries."[65]
  • "Information Costs, Pricing and Resource Unemployment" (1969):[66] Alchian considered it his best paper.[67]
  • "Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization" (1972)։[68] Alchian's most cited paper,[69] it is "credited with introducing the modern theory of the firm, the article looked at how problems associated with team production, such as shirking while leaving others to do the work, affect the organizational arrangements used by firms."[24] It "has become the basis for much of current organization theory, which now concentrates on the issues of team production and incentives that they emphasized."[7] Thomas N. Hubbard argues that it "may be the most influential paper in the economics of organization, catalyzing the development of the field as we know it."[65][69]
    In 2011 it was chosen as one of the top 20 articles published in the American Economic Review between 1911 and 2011.[70] In fact, it is the most cited of all papers published in the 100 years of existence of the American Economic Review[71] and the 12th most cited economic paper overall between 1970 and mid-2006.[72]

Views edit

Alchian has been described as a classical liberal[73] and libertarian.[74][c] He advocated laissez-faire economics[75] and free market individualism.[76] He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.[24][77] Axel Leijonhufvud argued that Alchian was skeptical of people who claim they will improve the world by using the powers of the government, but also those calling for abolishing government.[78]

Alchian listed "self-reliance, independence, responsibility, integrity and trust" as the principles and rules of capitalism and argued that these are antithetical to socialism/communism.[79] Alchian believed Keynesianism "totally neglects incentives."[80] Alchian was a friend of Milton Friedman[81] and Friedman often quoted him: "The one thing you can be most sure of in this life is that everyone will spend someone else’s money more liberally than they will spend their own."[82]

In the 1960s, Alchian told Eastern Bloc economists that they had to "introduce more private property rights to make markets work the way you think they should work" or else the market allocation will seem to be "perverse or deficient."[83] David Riesman noted that Alchian, like Friedman and Hayek, was "confident about the causal relationships that run from evolution to capitalism, from capitalism to meliorism."[84] One left-wing commentator described Alchian as an "ultra-liberal" economist who vigorously defended the idea that capitalism is characterised by the absence of any substantial power relations between individuals.[85] Alchian was apparently influenced by neo-Darwinism.[86] He, like Friedman, "invoked Darwinism to prove that the market economy is natural."[87] Alchian was critical of minimum wage laws.[88][89] During the 1970s energy crisis, Alchian argued for lifting of gas price controls.[90]

Alchian famously asserted that "95% of the material in economics journals was wrong or irrelevant".[91][92]

Personal life and death edit

Alchian resided in Mar Vista, Los Angeles.[24] In 1940 he married Pauline (née Crouse, 1916–2017),[93] an elementary school teacher, who he had met at Stanford.[94][24][20] They had two children:[24] Arline Ann Hoel (b. 1943)[95] and Allen Alexander Alchian (b. 1947).[96][94]

Alchian was an "avid computer user" and an early adopter of email.[97]

Personality edit

William R. Allen described Alchian as "almost always soft-spoken, unaggressive, and seemingly bemused" and noted that he "eschewed ambitious self-promotion and personal empire-building."[98] Daniel Benjamin described him as "fundamentally kind, shy, compassionate, and humble."[50] William F. Sharpe wrote that Alchian was "personally gentle and traditional," but was "clearly an eccentric economic theorist."[91][99] Deirdre McCloskey described Alchian as "the soul of courtesy." She wrote that "talking about economics with Armen Alchian is like talking about painting with Pablo Picasso" and that his economics "comes from experience of life."[100] Tom G. Palmer wrote of Alchian as a "sober scholar, but not so charismatic."[101] Susan L. Woodward described him as a "warm and sentimental person."[58] Roger Farmer described him as "selfless" and "amazing human being" who cared "only about promoting ideas."[102]

Golf edit

Alchian was a lifelong golfer[94] and a regular visitor to the Rancho Park Golf Course.[12] He often played golf with fellow economist George Stigler.[50] He greatly admired the sport and wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in 1977, in which he argued that golf is "not merely a sport. It is an activity, a lifestyle, a behavior, a manifestation of the essential human spirit. Golf's ethic, principles, rules and procedures of play are totally capitalistic. They are antithetical to socialism. Golf requires self-reliance, independence, responsibility, integrity and trust."[79][103] He preferred to stay home and play golf than to partake in a conference called by President Gerald Ford to "Whip Inflation Now" as it would be "more productive than anything likely to be said in Washington."[98]

Last years and death edit

Alchian suffered from a neurodegenerative disease in the last six years of his life.[4] Alchian died of natural causes,[12] in his sleep,[26] at his home in Los Angeles on February 19, 2013, at the age of 98.[24]

Recognition and legacy edit

"[Armen Alchian], more than anyone else (and I would include Ronald Coase), made property rights, contracts and business practices in general into the field of study that they have now become."

 —Axel Leijonhufvud[104]

In a 2011 survey of around 300 economics professors in the U.S., Alchian ranked 17th among favorite living economists older than 60. He received the same points as Robert Fogel and Gordon Tullock.[105][d] In 1984 Friedrich Hayek named Alchian and George Stigler his favorite economists "among the not really young ones."[107] William R. Allen described him as "one of the superb economic analysts and teachers of the second half of the twentieth century."[98] Walter E. Williams and Donald J. Boudreaux describe him as one of the top economists of the twentieth century and probably the greatest microeconomic theorist.[e]

Nobel Prize debate edit

Alchian never received a Nobel Prize, but numerous economists, such as Hayek,[18] Harry Markowitz,[f] Michael Intriligator,[g] William R. Allen,[98] David R. Henderson,[112] Donald J. Boudreaux,[113] believe he deserved one.[h] Hayek told Henderson in 1975: "There are two economists who deserve the Nobel prize because their work is important but won't get it because they didn't do a lot of work: Ronald Coase and Armen Alchian."[18][i] Allen nominated Alchian for the Nobel Prize in 1986 and characterized him as "a giant who, because of his lack of pretension, is easily overlooked by laymen and even by some supposed professionals—who has greatly honored his profession and uniquely contributed to its usefulness."[98] The Swedish economist Axel Leijonhufvud, who was a student and colleague of Alchian for thirty years,[115] suggested in 1996 that "his lack of self-promotion and his abstentiousness from it I think is what more than anything else has kept him from the Nobel prize so far. I can find no other explanation of the behavior of my countrymen."[78]

Influence edit

A number of economists have been influenced by Alchian, including several Nobel laurates. Kenneth Arrow was "personally and intellectually closely linked" with Alchian and the latter's influence played a crucial role on Arrow's introduction of the concept of "learning curve" into an economic growth model.[116] James M. Buchanan was inspired by Alchian's work on free tuition.[117] William F. Sharpe, who took a graduate course taught by Alchian in 1956, named him one of his three mentors, whose approach to research he had attempted to emulate.[118][24] Sharpe called him a "brilliant mind grappling (usually very successfully) with the most difficult concepts in economics in thoroughly creative and innovative ways."[91] Elinor Ostrom, an undergraduate student of Alchian, noted that as an institutional theorist, she "really appreciate[s] Alchian’s approach" in the 1950 article "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory".[119] Walter E. Williams called him one of his "tenacious mentors."[108] William R. Allen named Alchian one of the two individuals who had had the greatest influence on his life, calling him "an older brother."[120] John Lott stated that University Economics was responsible for him becoming an academic and going to UCLA.[121]

Other noted economists who were students of or were influenced by Alchian include Harold Demsetz,[122] Steve Hanke,[123] Henry Manne,[124] Yoram Barzel,[125] David Prychitko,[126] Anthony J. Culyer,[j] Karl Brunner,[k] Arthur De Vany,[127] Jerry Jordan,[128] Douglas W. Allen,[129] Axel Leijonhufvud,[l] Robert H. Topel.[130]

Hubbard argues that Alchian's 1972 paper "Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization" influenced works in the economics of organization by Bengt Holmström, Oliver Hart, and Paul Milgrom.[65]

Honors edit

Honorary doctorates
Tributes

See also edit

References edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ "Alchian not only remained a giant at the University of California Los Angeles. He was also viewed as a pioneer and co-founder of the New Institutional Economics revival, of which UCLA was at the center."[51]
  2. ^ "He devoted much of his career to studying property rights."[53]
  3. ^ Anthony J. Culyer: "Politically, he was a libertarian."[22]
  4. ^ Alchian ranked fourth, behind Gordon Tullock, George Stigler, and Ludwig von Mises in a 2011 survey asking economists the following question: "One might think of a character-type of economist that is well represented by the following five economists: Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, and James Buchanan. For that character type, which five additional economists would you include in a top-ten list of representatives of that character type?"[106]
  5. ^ Williams: "Professor Alchian is among the top 20th-century contributors to economic knowledge."[108] "Professor Alchian was probably the greatest microeconomic theorist of the 20th century..."[109]
    Boudreaux: "The world has lost two of the past century’s greatest economists in as many months: Armen Alchian died this morning. [...] More later on this great economist – a scholar who, I believe, probably is history’s greatest pure microeconomic theorist."[110]
  6. ^ "...One Google response was someone saying that Armen should get a Nobel Prize. I concur."[111]
  7. ^ Intriligator, who has known Alchian since 1962, said his colleague “would be a very good candidate for the Nobel Prize in economics.”[20]
  8. ^ "Many of Alchian’s students and friends believed that he well deserved a Nobel Prize in economics, but this recognition never came to him."[26]
    • "At the end of the day, was the denial of Nobel status to Armen Alchian unjust? Yes, to many of us at least."[114]
  9. ^ Coase did receive a Nobel Prize, in 1991.
  10. ^ "Two people more than any have shaped my thinking in economics. One was Armen Alchian and the other Alan Williams."[22]
  11. ^ "Alchian interviewed me for a possible appointment at UCLA. This was the beginning of a long friendship and a very productive intellectual exchange. This exchange shaped my thinking over the decades."[61]
  12. ^ "Like others who have had the privilege of being Armen’s students and colleagues, I have learned a great deal from his ideas."[115]

Citations edit

  1. ^ Marcus, Morton (May 18, 2014). . South Bend Tribune. Archived from the original on 31 August 2021. His work, along with that of others including, notably, Armen Alchian of UCLA, became the backbone for the merged study of law and economics.
  2. ^ Wolpert, Stuart (November 5, 1998). . newsroom.ucla.edu. UCLA Newsroom. Archived from the original on 2017-07-25. Sharpe, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990, was a student of Alchian at UCLA and considered him to be a valuable role model as well as his thesis adviser.
  3. ^ Henderson, David R.; Hooper, Charles L. (2006). Making Great Decisions in Business and Life. Chicago: Park Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0976854104. I (DRH) ... learned this as a Ph.D. student of noted UCLA economist Armen Alchian.
  4. ^ a b Cheung, Steven N.S. (February 21, 2013). "Eulogy on Armen Alchian by Steven N.S. Cheung". Hong Kong Economic Journal (in Chinese). Translated by Fred K. Luk; Kam-Ming Wan; Chi-Wa Yuen; Michael T. Cheung. () "My doctoral dissertation, The Theory of Share Tenancy, was written under the co-supervision of Armen Alchian and Jack Hirshleifer."
  5. ^ . libertyfund.org. Liberty Fund. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Jerry L. Jordan wrote his doctoral dissertation under the direction of Armen Alchian.
  6. ^ De Vany, Arthur (July 1996). "Information, Chance, and Evolution: Alchian and the Economics of Self-Organization". Economic Inquiry. 34 (3): 427. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01387.x. Smith and Hayek described it; Alchian gave the evolutionary proof.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Armen A. Alchian: Distinguished Fellow". The American Economic Review. 87 (3). June 1997. JSTOR 2951344.
  8. ^ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPC3-8M1 : 26 November 2014), Alex H Alchian, 06 Feb 1979; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
  9. ^ a b . Asbarez. May 26, 2006. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020.
  10. ^ "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH3P-G93 : 31 January 2021), Alexander Alchian, 1920.
  11. ^ a b Read 2015, pp. 137–138.
  12. ^ a b c d e . Los Angeles Times. Legacy.com. February 24, 2013. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020.
  13. ^ "California Marriages, 1850–1945", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H9W8-2L3Z : 24 March 2020), Alexander H. Alchian, 1909.
  14. ^ a b c d e Read 2015, p. 138.
  15. ^ "Florida Death Index, 1877–1998," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVCS-BG4 : 25 December 2014), Robert Haig Alchian, 01 Jun 1995; from "Florida Death Index, 1877–1998," index, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : 2004); citing vol., certificate number 69005, Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, Jacksonville.
  16. ^ a b Read 2015, p. 137.
  17. ^ Alchian, Armen Albert (1977). Economic Forces at Work. Liberty Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0913966358.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h Henderson, David R. (February 19, 2013). "An Economist Who Made the Science Less Dismal". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023.
  19. ^ . Asbarez. May 26, 2006. Archived from the original on 7 September 2022.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h Clough, Richard (May 7, 2006). . Daily Bruin. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i Beaud, Michel [in French]; Dostaler, Gilles [in French] (1995). "ALCHIAN Armen Albert (born 1914)". Economic Thought Since Keynes: A History and Dictionary of Major Economists. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 152–153. ISBN 0415164540.
  22. ^ a b c Culyer, Anthony J. (2015). "Acceptance Speech: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" (PDF). Value & Outcomes Spotlight. The Office of Health Economics. pp. 32–34.
  23. ^ Read 2015, p. 139.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Sullivan, Meg (February 19, 2013). . UCLA Newsroom. University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 7 January 2020.
  25. ^ Read 2015, p. 167.
  26. ^ a b c d e f Higgs, Robert (February 19, 2013). . Independent Institute. Archived from the original on 7 January 2020.
  27. ^ a b Alchian et al. 1996, p. 416.
  28. ^ a b Crane, Jennifer (March 7, 2013). . Daily Bruin. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  29. ^ Nik-Khah, Edward (2011). "George Stigler, the Graduate School of Business, and the Pillars of the Chicago School". In Van Horn, Robert; Mirowski, Philip; Stapleford, Thomas A. (eds.). Building Chicago Economics: New Perspectives on the History of America's Most Powerful Economics Program. Cambridge University Press. p. 247. ISBN 978-1139004077.
  30. ^ Muris, Timothy (15 January 2003). . ftc.gov. Federal Trade Commission. Archived from the original on 29 August 2021.
  31. ^ DiQuattro, Arthur (May 1980). "The Market and Liberal Values". Political Theory. 8 (2): 188. doi:10.1177/009059178000800204. JSTOR 190794. S2CID 148206353. Consider what two important neoclassicists tell students in their introductory text, Exchange and Production: Theory in Use. Alchian and Allen write...
  32. ^ Tieben, Bert (2009). The Concept of Equilibrium in Different Economic Traditions: A Historical Investigation. Rozenberg Publishers. p. 486. ISBN 978-9036101097. In the 1950s, this conclusion provoked a response from the defenders of the neoclassical theory of the firm like Alchian (1950) and Friedman (1953)...
  33. ^ Mayhew, Anne (2008). Narrating the Rise of Big Business in the USA: How Economists Explain Standard Oil and Wal-Mart. Routledge. p. 79. ISBN 9781135973445. ...Armen Alchian, a widely respected economic theorist associated with the Chicago School...
  34. ^ McCloskey, Deirdre N. (1994). Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics. Cambridge University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0521436038. ...that Chicago economists such as Ronald Coase and Armen Alchian...
  35. ^ . Independent Institute. Archived from the original on 7 January 2020.
  36. ^ a b Read 2015, p. 160.
  37. ^ Boettke, Peter J.; Zywicki, Todd J. (2017). "Law and economics: the contributions of the Austrian School of Economics". In Zywicki, Todd J.; Boettke, Peter J. (eds.). Research Handbook on Austrian Law and Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 23. ISBN 978-1849801133. The Austrian school of economics in its historical and contemporary embodiment, as well as the various thinkers that it influenced along the way, such as Alchian...
  38. ^ Bitetti, Rosamaria (2019). "Principles of the Austrian Tradition in the Policy Cycle". In Horwitz, Steven (ed.). Austrian Economics: The Next Generation. Emerald Publishing. p. 147. ISBN 978-1787565784. ...thinkers and authors who are not officially Austrian economists, but rather fellow travelers from Austrian-friendly schools. Just to name a few [...] Alchian and Demsetz and property rights economics...
  39. ^ Hunt, E.K.; Lautzenheiser, Mark (2011). History of Economic Thought (3rd ed.). Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. p. 478. In a widely used textbook [University Economics] written from the Austrian and Chicago perspective, Armen Alchian and William Allen...
  40. ^ Ebeling, Richard (1991). Austrian Economics: Perspectives on the Past and Prospects for the Future. Hillsdale College Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0916308834. Indeed, the "property rights revolution" in economic theory, associated with, among others, Harold Demsetz and Arman Alchian, reveals a (sometimes) unconscious debt to Austrian insights.
  41. ^ [37][38][39][40]
  42. ^ Boettke, Pete (December 27, 2010). . EconTalk. Liberty Fund. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. ...Alchian got a lot of those arguments from Hayek and Mises.
  43. ^ O’Driscoll, Jerry (September 9, 2010). . The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. ...the UCLA tradition as by Mises and Hayek. Mises and Hayek had an important influence on that tradition, however.
  44. ^ Manne, Henry (January 18, 2011). . coordinationproblem.org. Coordination Problem. Archived from the original on 14 September 2021. Armen Alchian's connections with Austrian economics, I also have some trivia. I first met Armen at a small conference in 1958 at which he presented a first draft of what became the seminal "Some Economics of Property Rights." He began his lecture with a lengthy quote from Mises' Human Action.
  45. ^ "Tape: Alchian (November 11, 1978)". Nobel-Prize Winning Economist Interviews. Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles. 1983. pp. 362–429.
  46. ^ . The Hayek Interviews. Universidad Francisco Marroquín. November 11, 1978. Archived from the original on 10 January 2020.
  47. ^ Ebenstein, Alan (2003). Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 107. ISBN 1403960380.
  48. ^ Ardalan, Kavous (2018). Case Method and Pluralist Economics: Philosophy, Methodology and Practice. Springer. p. 189. ISBN 978-3319720708. Contemporary Austrian school economists reflect a more diverse mix of intellectual traditions in economic science as they have been influenced by modern figures in economics, such as Armen Alchian...
  49. ^ a b Boettke, Peter J.; Candela, Rosolino A. (2014). "Alchian, Buchanan, and Coase: A Neglected Branch of Chicago Price Theory". Man and the Economy. 1 (2). De Gruyter: 189–208. doi:10.1515/me-2014-0022. S2CID 199575704.
  50. ^ a b c Benjamin, Daniel (February 19, 2013). . Property and Environment Research Center. Archived from the original on 14 September 2021.
  51. ^ a b Read 2015, p. 166.
  52. ^ Alchian, Armen A. . Library of Economics and Liberty. Liberty Fund. Archived from the original on 14 November 2019. About the Author: Most of his major scientific contributions are in the economics of property rights.
  53. ^ Sanchez, Dan (21 February 2013). . Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  54. ^ Foss, Nicolai J. (1997). "Economics, Institutions and Ludwig Von Mises". Cultural Dynamics. 9 (1): 83. doi:10.1177/092137409700900105. S2CID 143218062. Menger and Bohm-Bawerk are among the few economists to discuss property rights before Coase, Alchian and Demsetz in the 1960s laid the foundation for the property rights approach.
  55. ^ Pejovich, Svetozar (1973). "Comment on Paper by Alchian and Demsetz". The Journal of Economic History. 33 (1): 41–42. doi:10.1017/S0022050700076427. JSTOR 2117140. S2CID 155012746.
  56. ^ Boettke, Peter (June 1, 2015). . Libertarianism.org. Cato Institute. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  57. ^ Newhard, Joseph Michael (2014-08-01). "The stock market speaks: How Dr. Alchian learned to build the bomb". Journal of Corporate Finance. 27: 116–132. doi:10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2014.05.002. ISSN 0929-1199.
  58. ^ a b Woodward, Susan (June 2017). "Memories of Armen". Journal of Corporate Finance. 44: 385–387. doi:10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2016.03.007.
  59. ^ Alchian, Armen A. (June 1950). "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory". Journal of Political Economy. 58 (3): 211–221. doi:10.1086/256940. JSTOR 1827159. S2CID 36045710.
  60. ^ Manne, Geoffrey A.; Zywicki, Todd J. (9 March 2014). "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Behavioral Economic Theory". Journal of Law, Economics & Policy. 10 (3): 555–580. SSRN 2406175.
  61. ^ a b Brunner, Karl (March 1987). "Armen A. Alchian". Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft. 143 (1): 229–231. JSTOR 40750974.
  62. ^ Alchian, Armen (October 1963). "Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production". Econometrica. 31 (4): 679–693. doi:10.2307/1909166. JSTOR 1909166.
  63. ^ Mishina, Kazuhiro (1999). "Learning by New Experiences: Revisiting the Flying Fortress Learning Curve". In Lamoreaux, Naomi R.; Raff, Daniel M. G.; Temin, Peter (eds.). (PDF). University of Chicago Press. p. 145. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2021.
  64. ^ Argote, Linda; Epple, Dennis (1990). "Learning Curves in Manufacturing". Science. 247 (4945): 920–924. Bibcode:1990Sci...247..920A. doi:10.1126/science.247.4945.920. PMID 17776451. S2CID 21055499.
  65. ^ a b c Hubbard, Thomas N. (February 20, 2013). . digitopoly.org. Archived from the original on 10 September 2022.
  66. ^ Alchian, Armen A. (June 1969). "Information Costs, Pricing, and Resource Unemployment". Western Economic Journal. 7 (2): 109–128.
  67. ^ a b Lott Jr., John R. (July 1996). "Armen A. Alchian's influence on economics". Economic Inquiry. 34 (3): 409–411. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01385.x.
  68. ^ Alchian, Armen A.; Demsetz, Harold (December 1972). "Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization". The American Economic Review. 62 (5): 777–795. JSTOR 1815199.
  69. ^ a b Hubbard, Thomas N. (30 January 2019). . Centre for Economic Policy Research. Archived from the original on 11 September 2022.
  70. ^ Arrow, Kenneth J.; Bernheim, B. Douglas; Feldstein, Martin S.; McFadden, Daniel L.; Poterba, James M.; Solow, Robert M. (February 2011), "100 Years of the American Economic Review: The Top 20 Articles", The American Economic Review, 101 (1): 1–8, doi:10.1257/aer.101.1.1, hdl:1721.1/114169, JSTOR 41038778
  71. ^ Torgler, Benno; Piatti, Marco (2013). "Top Institutions, Top Papers and Leading Economists Publishing in AER". A Century of American Economic Review: Insights on Critical Factors in Journal Publishing. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 23. doi:10.1057/9781137333056_2. ISBN 978-1349462049.
  72. ^ Kim, E. Han; Morse, Adair; Zingales, Luigi (2006). "What Has Mattered to Economics since 1970". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 20 (4): 189–202. doi:10.1257/jep.20.4.189. hdl:2027.42/48735. JSTOR 30033690.
  73. ^ Hall, Joshua C.; Lawson, Robert A. (January 2014). "Economic Freedom Of The World: An Accounting Of The Literature". Contemporary Economic Policy. 32 (1): 2. doi:10.1111/coep.12010. S2CID 154941466. ...classical-liberal scholars including Armen Alchian, Peter Bauer, Gary Becker...
    • Boettke, Peter (9 June 2015). . Adam Smith Institute. Archived from the original on 2 December 2018. The international movement for classical liberalism... [...] ...to advance the ideas of liberty – the intellectual heritage of [...] of Alchian ...
    • Ashford, Nigel; Davies, Stephen, eds. (2012). "Conservatives and classical liberals cited in the text". A Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought. Routledge. p. 280. ISBN 978-1136708336.
  74. ^ Chickering, A. Lawrence (1993). Beyond Left and Right: Breaking the Political Stalemate. Institute for Contemporary Studies. p. 33. ISBN 978-1558152090. ...the libertarian economist Armen Alchian...
    • King, J. E. (2021). "F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy". History of Economics Review. 79 (1): 75–77. doi:10.1080/10370196.2021.1883367. S2CID 236344818. ...his influence on such contemporary libertarian thinkers as Armen Alchian, James Buchanan and Ronald Coase...
  75. ^ Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (1999). Evolution and Institutions: On Evolutionary Economics and the Evolution of Economics. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 162. ...the kind of Panglossian and laissez-faire conclusions that Alchian and Friedman had proposed.
  76. ^ Meister, Robert (2012). After Evil: A Politics of Human Rights. Columbia University Press. p. 236. ISBN 978-0231150378. ...Alchian's free market individualism...
    • Machan, Tibor R. (1975). Human Rights and Human Liberties: A Radical Reconsideration of the American Political Tradition. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers. p. 258. ISBN 978-0882291598. To name just a few who are now engaged in research and analysis pointing to a free market approach to the problems facing us, the ranks include Milton Friedman, Yale Brozen, Harold Demsetz, Armen Alchian...
    • Poole, Robert (May 1976). . Reason. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021. Bringing in such distinguished free-market economists as UCLA's Armen Alchian...
  77. ^ . DeSmogBlog. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. Armen A. Alchian (1914-2013) 1957
  78. ^ a b Alchian et al. 1996, p. 420.
  79. ^ a b Alchian, Armen A. (July 13, 1977). (PDF). The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2020.
  80. ^ Individual and Business Tax Reduction Proposals. Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Taxation and Debt Management Generally of the Committee on Finance. United States Senate. Ninety-Fifth Congress, Second Session. July 14, 1978. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1978. p. 83
  81. ^ Friedman, Milton (1993). Why Government Is the Problem. Hoover Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0817954437. My old friend Armen Alchian...
  82. ^ Brunie, Charles H. (April 11, 2007). . City Journal. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  83. ^ Schroeder, Gertrude E. (Summer 1988). "Property rights issues in economic reforms in socialist countries". Studies in Comparative Communism. 21 (2): 175–188. doi:10.1016/0039-3592(88)90012-9.
  84. ^ Riesman, David (1999). Conservative Capitalism: The Social Economy. St. Martin's Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-0333982785.
  85. ^ Palermo, Giulio (2007). "Misconceptions of power: From Alchian and Demsetz to Bowles and Gintis". Capital & Class. 31 (2). Conference of Socialist Economists: 147–185. doi:10.1177/030981680709200107. hdl:11379/35559. S2CID 54869425.
  86. ^ England, Richard W. (1994). Evolutionary Concepts in Contemporary Economics. University of Michigan Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0472104833.
  87. ^ Watkins, John P. (1998). "Towards a Reconsideration of Social Evolution: Symbiosis and Its Implications for Economics". Journal of Economic Issues. 32 (1): 91. doi:10.1080/00213624.1998.11506013. JSTOR 4227280.
  88. ^ Young, Ryan (March 5, 2019). . cei.org. Competitive Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on 17 February 2022.
  89. ^ Henderson, David R. (Summer 2012). (PDF). Regulation. Cato Institute: 68. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-09-18. ...Armen Alchian ... recommended that he read studies ... about how minimum wage laws dried up job opportunities for unskilled workers.
  90. ^ Alchian, Armen A. (17 June 1979). . Boca Raton News. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023.
  91. ^ a b c Sharpe, William F. (1995). "William Sharpe". In Breit, William; Spencer, Roger W. (eds.). Lives of the Laureates: Thirteen Nobel Economists (3rd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. pp. 203–226. ISBN 978-0262023917.
  92. ^ Hanke, Steve H. (June 2016). (PDF). Studies in Applied Economics (55). Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise: 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-02-02.
  93. ^ . stanfordmag.org. STANFORD magazine. September 2017. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021.
  94. ^ a b c Read 2015, p. 170.
  95. ^ "California Birth Index, 1905–1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2WF-ZDW : 27 November 2014), Arline Ann Alchian, 26 Apr 1943; citing Fresno, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
  96. ^ "California Birth Index, 1905–1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V27G-N4Q : 27 November 2014), Allen Alexander Alchian, 27 Mar 1947; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
  97. ^ Levine, David K. . dklevine.com. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  98. ^ a b c d e Allen, William R. (September 2010). "A Life among the Econ, Particularly at UCLA". Econ Journal Watch. 7 (3): 205–234. ()
  99. ^ Read 2015, p. 141.
  100. ^ McCloskey, Deirdre N. (1996). "Economic Tourism". Eastern Economic Journal. 22 (3): 365–368. JSTOR 40325725.
  101. ^ Palmer, Tom G. (March 25, 2007). . cato-unbound.org. Cato Institute. Archived from the original on 4 May 2017.
  102. ^ Farmer, Roger E. A. (27 October 2023). "When I came to UCLA in 1987, Armen was winding down in terms of research output". Twitter. Archived from the original on 27 October 2023.
  103. ^ Calcagno, Peter T.; Whitson, Whitney (June 2011). "Of Golf, Capitalism, and Socialism: An Empirical Analysis". Atlantic Economic Journal. 39 (2): 199–200. doi:10.1007/s11293-011-9267-1. S2CID 154796026.
  104. ^ Alchian et al. 1996, pp. 418–419.
  105. ^ Davis, William L.; Figgins, Bob; Hedengren, David; Klein, Daniel B. (May 2011). "Economics Professors' Favorite Economic Thinkers, Journals, and Blogs (along with Party and Policy Views)". Econ Journal Watch. 8 (2): 137.
  106. ^ Klein, Daniel B. (January 2009). "Desperately Seeking Smithians: Responses to the Questionnaire about Building an Identity". Econ Journal Watch. 6 (1): 113–114.
  107. ^ Blanchard III, James U. (1984). . Cato Policy Report. VI (5). Cato Institute: 10–12. Archived from the original on July 30, 2015., "Q: Who's your favorite economist, besides F. A. Hayek? Hayek: Well, among the not really young ones are Armen Alchian and George Stigler. Until recently, my dear friend Lionel Robbins, who has had a stroke and is now out of action."
  108. ^ a b Williams, Walter E. (July 4, 2007). . Townhall. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  109. ^ Williams, Walter E. (October 11, 2018). "WILLIAMS: Finally, some real economics". Toronto Sun.
  110. ^ Boudreaux, Don (February 19, 2013). . Cafe Hayek. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  111. ^ Glasner, David (February 25, 2013). . uneasymoney.com. Uneasy Money. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021.
  112. ^ Henderson, David R. (October 9, 2003). "Nobel Econometricians". The Wall Street Journal. Three main candidates come to mind: Armen Alchian...
  113. ^ Schneiderman, R.M. (October 12, 2009). . economix.blogs.nytimes.com. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 August 2021.
  114. ^ McChesney, Fred S. (2014). "Magnus Magister: An Affectionate Appreciation of Armen Alchian". Journal of Law, Economics & Policy. 10 (3): 597. S2CID 185331687.
  115. ^ a b Alchian et al. 1996, p. 418.
  116. ^ Ballandonne, Matthieu (2015). "Creating Increasing Returns: The Genesis of Arrow's "Learning by Doing" Article". History of Political Economy. 47 (3): 449–479. doi:10.1215/00182702-3153140.
  117. ^ Hall, Joshua C. (2020). "Academia in Anarchy: 50 years on". Public Choice. 183 (3–4): 407. doi:10.1007/s11127-020-00793-7. S2CID 216398194.
  118. ^ Lott Jr., John R. (1997). "In celebration of Armen Alchian's eightieth birthday.". In Lott Jr., John R. (ed.). Uncertainty and Economic Evolution: Essays in Honour of Armen Alchian. Routledge. p. 187.
  119. ^ Ostrom, Elinor (February 2011). (PDF). The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. Stanford University. p. 116. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2020.
  120. ^ Lott, John (December 1978). . Reason. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022.
  121. ^ Alchian et al. 1996, p. 412.
  122. ^ Demsetz, Harold (March 1987). "An Appreciation of Armen A. Alchian's Contribution to the Theory of the Firm". Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft. 143 (1): 3–6. JSTOR 40750949.
  123. ^ Hanke, Steve (March 6, 2013). . The Wall Street Journal. Cato Institute. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020.
  124. ^ . law.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago Law School. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020. His intellectual heroes and intellectual peers were classical liberal economists like Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig Mises, Armen Alchian and Harold Demsetz...
  125. ^ Lueck, Dean (2019). "Yoram Barzel and the Economics of Institutions". Man and the Economy. 5 (2). doi:10.1515/me-2018-0011. S2CID 158284820. SSRN 744224. More generally Barzel has been heavily influenced by Armen Alchian and a great admirer of him.
  126. ^ Prychitko, David L. (November 21, 2010). . coordinationproblem.org. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015. I was raised on Alchian & Allen, having learned most of my economics from two of Alchian's students from the 1960s, Phil May and Howard Swaine. Alchian ranks, with Mises and Hayek, among my favorite and, I believe, most insightful, economists.
  127. ^ De Vany, Arthur (1996). "Information, chance, and evolution: Alchian and the economics of self-organization". Economic Inquiry. 34 (3): 428. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01387.x. Alchian's teaching shaped my understanding of economics.
  128. ^ Jordan, Jerry L. (2017). "Hayek in His Own Words". The Journal of Private Enterprise. 32 (1): 2. In a conversation with one of my teachers, Armen Alchian...
  129. ^ Klein, Peter G. (19 February 2013). . organizationsandmarkets.com. Organizations and Markets. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. I only met Armen once, but his influence on me was profound.
  130. ^ Alchian et al. 1996, pp. 412, 422.
  131. ^ (PDF). DeSmogBlog. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-01-12. Retrieved 2020-01-12. Professor Armen A. Alchian 1957, Life Member
  132. ^ (PDF). 92nd Annual Conference Program. Western Economic Association International. June 2017. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2020.
  133. ^ (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2020. Alchian, Armen Albert (1914–2013) Election: 1978, Fellow
  134. ^ . American Economic Association. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020.
  135. ^ . apee.org. Association of Private Enterprise Education. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021.
  136. ^ (PDF). About the IEA. Institute of Economic Affairs. p. 107. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 November 2019. Honorary Fellows: Professor Armen A Alchian
  137. ^ (PDF). Rochester Review. University of Rochester: 20. Summer 1983. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-01-09. When the 1983 Commencement finally ended, four weeks after it began, some 2,100 new degrees had been awarded, including three more honorary doctorates: to the distinguished economist Armen A. Alchian of the University of California at Los Angeles (at the GSM exercises)...
  138. ^ . ufm.edu. Universidad Francisco Marroquín. Archived from the original on 2011-05-01. May 8, 2010 ARMEN A. ALCHIAN
  139. ^ Levine, David K. . dklevine.com. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020.
  140. ^ . Armenian Economic Association. Archived from the original on 10 January 2020.
  141. ^ Takooshian, Harold (2020). "Armenian-Americans in the Behavioral Sciences". Main Issues of Pedagogy and Psychology. 18 (2). Khachatur Abovyan Armenian State Pedagogical University: 8. doi:10.24234/miopap.v18i2.374 (inactive 2024-04-25). ISSN 1829-1295.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2024 (link)

Bibliography edit

January 01, 1970
armen, alchian, armen, albert, alchian, ɑː, april, 1914, february, 2013, american, economist, spent, almost, entire, career, university, california, angeles, ucla, major, microeconomic, theorist, known, founders, institutional, economics, widely, acknowledged,. Armen Albert Alchian ˈ ɑː l tʃ i en April 12 1914 February 19 2013 was an American economist He spent almost his entire career at the University of California Los Angeles UCLA A major microeconomic theorist he is known as one of the founders of new institutional economics and widely acknowledged for his work on property rights Armen A AlchianBorn 1914 04 12 April 12 1914Fresno California U S DiedFebruary 19 2013 2013 02 19 aged 98 Los Angeles California U S EducationStanford University BA PhD Academic careerInstitutionsUniversity of California Los Angeles 1946 84 RAND Corporation 1946 64 FieldMicroeconomicsProperty rightsLaw and economics 1 School ortraditionNew Institutional EconomicsChicago SchoolNeoclassical economicsDoctoralstudentsWilliam F Sharpe 2 David R Henderson 3 Steven N S Cheung 4 Jerry Jordan 5 InfluencesAdam Smith 6 Ludwig von Mises Friedrich HayekAwardsDistinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association 1996 7 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Research 3 1 Notable publications 4 Views 5 Personal life and death 5 1 Personality 5 2 Golf 5 3 Last years and death 6 Recognition and legacy 6 1 Nobel Prize debate 6 2 Influence 6 3 Honors 7 See also 8 References 8 1 Notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 BibliographyEarly life and education editArmen Albert Alchian was born on April 12 1914 in Fresno California to Armenian American parents His father Alexander H Alchian 1884 1979 8 was born in Erzurum Ottoman Empire 9 and emigrated to the U S in 1901 10 while his mother Lily Normart 1889 1976 was born to Armenian immigrant parents in Fresno 11 Her parents were among the first Armenians to settle in the San Joaquin Valley and she was the first Armenian born in Fresno 11 12 His parents married in 1909 13 and Armen had a younger brother Robert Haig Alchian 1917 1995 14 15 His father worked as a musician and a jeweler and the family was of modest means 16 He grew up in the Armenian community which was initially subject to intense discrimination 17 He himself was reportedly subject to anti Armenian discrimination early in his life 18 In the 1920s his family hosted General Andranik an Armenian national hero in their home for several months 19 Alchian was called the Armenian Adam Smith by Michael Intriligator 20 9 Alchian attended Fresno High School where he excelled academically and athletically 14 He initially enrolled in Fresno State College in 1932 and transferred to Stanford University in 1934 obtaining his bachelor s degree in 1936 14 He earned his PhD in Philosophy from Stanford in 1943 14 21 His dissertation was titled The Effects of Changes in the General Wage Structure 14 Anthony J Culyer quoted Kenneth Arrow as saying that Alchian was the brightest economics student Stanford ever had 22 Career editAlchian worked as a teaching assistant at Stanford 1937 40 21 and then in 1940 41 he worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research NBER and Harvard University and in 1942 at the University of Oregon as an instructor 16 He went on to serve in the Army Air Forces as a statistician between 1942 and 1946 21 23 Alchian joined the Department of Economics at University of California Los Angeles UCLA in 1946 24 He was initially assistant professor until 1952 then associate professor until 1958 and eventually named professor in 1958 21 20 He retired from UCLA in 1984 and was named professor emeritus of economics 24 21 It was not until 2007 at the age of 93 that he closed his campus office 24 In classroom Alchian adopted the Socratic method and disliked the traditional lecture method 25 26 James M Buchanan briefly a colleague in the late 1960s classified Alchian as the best blackboard economist he had ever known 27 In 2006 John Riley chair of the UCLA economics department stated that Alchian was the father of the modern day economics department at UCLA and set the future for it 28 William R Allen noted that the department s golden age was from 1950 to 1980 because of Alchian s presence and leadership in the department 28 Alchian was also affiliated with the RAND Corporation between 1946 and 1964 and was a consultant to business firms 21 At RAND he is remembered for his work on the hidden costs of regulation 24 Alchian was the first economist to be employed at RAND and became the conduit through which many Chicago stalwarts such as Ronald Coase Gary Becker and others received lucrative consultancies from RAND 29 Alchian was also involved for around 20 years with the Law and Economics Center initially affiliated with the University of Rochester which provided insight into economic theory to legal scholars and judges 24 Timothy Muris opined that Alchian was unexcelled in teaching economics to lawyers 30 Research editAlchian an applied economist 7 has been described by Robert Higgs as a master of applied price theory 26 Alchian was a neoclassical economist 31 32 specifically of the Chicago School 33 34 Along with Harold Demsetz Alchian is considered to be the founder of the UCLA tradition 20 35 alternatively known as the Los Angeles School 36 Read explains Theirs is a school which shares some similarities with Chicago s emphasis on the free market Harvard s tradition of institutional studies and the strategic thrust of both the RAND Corporation and of the Hoover Institution to which both contributed intellectually 36 Alchian was also influenced by the Austrian School 41 especially by the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek 42 43 He was influenced by Mises Human Action 1949 44 Alchian famously interviewed Hayek in 1978 45 46 during which Alchian told him that he was particularly influenced by two of his articles Economics and Knowledge 1937 and The Use of Knowledge in Society 1945 47 In his turn Alchian has influenced contemporary Austrian School economists 48 Alchian along with James M Buchanan and Ronald Coase served as a bridge between the Old and New Chicago School 49 Boettke and Candela argue that these three economists founded the following branches in economics New Institutional Economics Law and Economics and the economics of property rights 49 Indeed Alchian is widely considered one of the founders of the New Institutional Economics 50 a According to Robert Higgs Alchian had the greatest influence aside from Coase in creating and fostering what has come to be known as the New Institutional Economics one of the most notable improvements in mainstream economics during the past half century 26 A large portion of Alchian s contribution is in property rights 52 b 54 Henderson argued that Alchian has been most impactful on the economic analysis of property rights and summarized his work on it as follows You tell me the rules and I ll tell you what outcomes to expect 18 Alchian opined that In essence economics is the study of property rights over resources 55 Peter Boettke noted in 2015 that Alchian is recognized as the founder of what was called property rights economics in which he had to re introduce to the economics profession the important role that property rights play in the determination of economic performance 56 While working at RAND in 1954 Alchian conducted the first event study to infer what kind of fuel material was used in the development of hydrogen bombs the construction of which were secret at the time He successfully identified lithium as the fusion fuel through publicly available financial data finding only the stock of Lithium Corporation of America suddenly increased around the hydrogen bomb test Castle Bravo However the paper was confiscated and destroyed because it was seen as a threat to national security 57 Notable publications edit See also Alchian Allen effect Alchian was not prolific and did not author many books and articles 20 7 However his few published works are widely cited 18 20 His writing style is characterized with lack of mathematical formality and is known for its straightforward prose 26 Harold Demsetz noted that his works are largely uncluttered with mathematics 20 Henderson praised his clear writing noting that Alchian was one of the last economists of his generation to communicate mainly in words and not equations 18 According to Susan L Woodward he had no use for formal models that did not teach us to look somewhere new in the known world nor had he any patience for findings that relied on fancy econometrics 58 In 1964 Alchian and William R Allen co authored University Economics an influential general textbook 18 that has undergone six editions under two titles 24 12 It appeared in 1969 under the name Exchange and Production 21 The collection of his works was first published in 1977 by Liberty Fund under the title Economic Forces at Work which contains his main 18 papers 21 In 2006 Liberty Fund published The Collected Works of Armen A Alchian in two volumes 12 51 His most significant articles are 21 Uncertainty Evolution and Economic Theory 1950 59 It is Alchian s first major paper that brought him attention 24 18 Called one of the most important contributions to the economic literature 60 the article pioneered the idea that the price system is a Darwinian mechanism in which efficient behaviors survive regardless of the motives of economic agents 7 According to Karl Brunner Alchian demonstrates that even in the absence of rational profit maximizing or any purposive behavior the economic system produces a rational ordering of resource use patterns 61 James M Buchanan described it as a seminal paper which has a genuinely innovative quality 27 Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production 1963 62 was completed for the RAND Corporation by 1949 but was not published until 14 years later because it relied on military classified data A pioneering work 63 Linda Argote and Dennis Epple noted that it stimulated interest in organizational learning curve 64 while Hubbard stated that it is credited as the first empirical investigation of learning curves an important feature of many industries 65 Information Costs Pricing and Resource Unemployment 1969 66 Alchian considered it his best paper 67 Production Information Costs and Economic Organization 1972 68 Alchian s most cited paper 69 it is credited with introducing the modern theory of the firm the article looked at how problems associated with team production such as shirking while leaving others to do the work affect the organizational arrangements used by firms 24 It has become the basis for much of current organization theory which now concentrates on the issues of team production and incentives that they emphasized 7 Thomas N Hubbard argues that it may be the most influential paper in the economics of organization catalyzing the development of the field as we know it 65 69 In 2011 it was chosen as one of the top 20 articles published in the American Economic Review between 1911 and 2011 70 In fact it is the most cited of all papers published in the 100 years of existence of the American Economic Review 71 and the 12th most cited economic paper overall between 1970 and mid 2006 72 Views editAlchian has been described as a classical liberal 73 and libertarian 74 c He advocated laissez faire economics 75 and free market individualism 76 He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society 24 77 Axel Leijonhufvud argued that Alchian was skeptical of people who claim they will improve the world by using the powers of the government but also those calling for abolishing government 78 Alchian listed self reliance independence responsibility integrity and trust as the principles and rules of capitalism and argued that these are antithetical to socialism communism 79 Alchian believed Keynesianism totally neglects incentives 80 Alchian was a friend of Milton Friedman 81 and Friedman often quoted him The one thing you can be most sure of in this life is that everyone will spend someone else s money more liberally than they will spend their own 82 In the 1960s Alchian told Eastern Bloc economists that they had to introduce more private property rights to make markets work the way you think they should work or else the market allocation will seem to be perverse or deficient 83 David Riesman noted that Alchian like Friedman and Hayek was confident about the causal relationships that run from evolution to capitalism from capitalism to meliorism 84 One left wing commentator described Alchian as an ultra liberal economist who vigorously defended the idea that capitalism is characterised by the absence of any substantial power relations between individuals 85 Alchian was apparently influenced by neo Darwinism 86 He like Friedman invoked Darwinism to prove that the market economy is natural 87 Alchian was critical of minimum wage laws 88 89 During the 1970s energy crisis Alchian argued for lifting of gas price controls 90 Alchian famously asserted that 95 of the material in economics journals was wrong or irrelevant 91 92 Personal life and death editAlchian resided in Mar Vista Los Angeles 24 In 1940 he married Pauline nee Crouse 1916 2017 93 an elementary school teacher who he had met at Stanford 94 24 20 They had two children 24 Arline Ann Hoel b 1943 95 and Allen Alexander Alchian b 1947 96 94 Alchian was an avid computer user and an early adopter of email 97 Personality edit William R Allen described Alchian as almost always soft spoken unaggressive and seemingly bemused and noted that he eschewed ambitious self promotion and personal empire building 98 Daniel Benjamin described him as fundamentally kind shy compassionate and humble 50 William F Sharpe wrote that Alchian was personally gentle and traditional but was clearly an eccentric economic theorist 91 99 Deirdre McCloskey described Alchian as the soul of courtesy She wrote that talking about economics with Armen Alchian is like talking about painting with Pablo Picasso and that his economics comes from experience of life 100 Tom G Palmer wrote of Alchian as a sober scholar but not so charismatic 101 Susan L Woodward described him as a warm and sentimental person 58 Roger Farmer described him as selfless and amazing human being who cared only about promoting ideas 102 Golf edit Alchian was a lifelong golfer 94 and a regular visitor to the Rancho Park Golf Course 12 He often played golf with fellow economist George Stigler 50 He greatly admired the sport and wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in 1977 in which he argued that golf is not merely a sport It is an activity a lifestyle a behavior a manifestation of the essential human spirit Golf s ethic principles rules and procedures of play are totally capitalistic They are antithetical to socialism Golf requires self reliance independence responsibility integrity and trust 79 103 He preferred to stay home and play golf than to partake in a conference called by President Gerald Ford to Whip Inflation Now as it would be more productive than anything likely to be said in Washington 98 Last years and death edit Alchian suffered from a neurodegenerative disease in the last six years of his life 4 Alchian died of natural causes 12 in his sleep 26 at his home in Los Angeles on February 19 2013 at the age of 98 24 Recognition and legacy edit Armen Alchian more than anyone else and I would include Ronald Coase made property rights contracts and business practices in general into the field of study that they have now become Axel Leijonhufvud 104 In a 2011 survey of around 300 economics professors in the U S Alchian ranked 17th among favorite living economists older than 60 He received the same points as Robert Fogel and Gordon Tullock 105 d In 1984 Friedrich Hayek named Alchian and George Stigler his favorite economists among the not really young ones 107 William R Allen described him as one of the superb economic analysts and teachers of the second half of the twentieth century 98 Walter E Williams and Donald J Boudreaux describe him as one of the top economists of the twentieth century and probably the greatest microeconomic theorist e Nobel Prize debate edit Alchian never received a Nobel Prize but numerous economists such as Hayek 18 Harry Markowitz f Michael Intriligator g William R Allen 98 David R Henderson 112 Donald J Boudreaux 113 believe he deserved one h Hayek told Henderson in 1975 There are two economists who deserve the Nobel prize because their work is important but won t get it because they didn t do a lot of work Ronald Coase and Armen Alchian 18 i Allen nominated Alchian for the Nobel Prize in 1986 and characterized him as a giant who because of his lack of pretension is easily overlooked by laymen and even by some supposed professionals who has greatly honored his profession and uniquely contributed to its usefulness 98 The Swedish economist Axel Leijonhufvud who was a student and colleague of Alchian for thirty years 115 suggested in 1996 that his lack of self promotion and his abstentiousness from it I think is what more than anything else has kept him from the Nobel prize so far I can find no other explanation of the behavior of my countrymen 78 Influence edit A number of economists have been influenced by Alchian including several Nobel laurates Kenneth Arrow was personally and intellectually closely linked with Alchian and the latter s influence played a crucial role on Arrow s introduction of the concept of learning curve into an economic growth model 116 James M Buchanan was inspired by Alchian s work on free tuition 117 William F Sharpe who took a graduate course taught by Alchian in 1956 named him one of his three mentors whose approach to research he had attempted to emulate 118 24 Sharpe called him a brilliant mind grappling usually very successfully with the most difficult concepts in economics in thoroughly creative and innovative ways 91 Elinor Ostrom an undergraduate student of Alchian noted that as an institutional theorist she really appreciate s Alchian s approach in the 1950 article Uncertainty Evolution and Economic Theory 119 Walter E Williams called him one of his tenacious mentors 108 William R Allen named Alchian one of the two individuals who had had the greatest influence on his life calling him an older brother 120 John Lott stated that University Economics was responsible for him becoming an academic and going to UCLA 121 Other noted economists who were students of or were influenced by Alchian include Harold Demsetz 122 Steve Hanke 123 Henry Manne 124 Yoram Barzel 125 David Prychitko 126 Anthony J Culyer j Karl Brunner k Arthur De Vany 127 Jerry Jordan 128 Douglas W Allen 129 Axel Leijonhufvud l Robert H Topel 130 Hubbard argues that Alchian s 1972 paper Production Information Costs and Economic Organization influenced works in the economics of organization by Bengt Holmstrom Oliver Hart and Paul Milgrom 65 Honors edit Member of the Mont Pelerin Society 1957 131 President of the Western Economic Association International 24 1975 132 67 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1978 133 Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association 1996 134 7 Adam Smith Award by the Association of Private Enterprise Education 2000 135 Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs 136 Honorary doctorates University of Rochester 1983 137 Universidad Francisco Marroquin 2010 138 Tributes The Armen A Alchian Chair in Economic Theory at UCLA 24 was established in July 1997 139 The Armenian Economic Association presents the Armen Alchian Award since 2014 140 See also editDaron Acemoglu another prominent American economist of Armenian origin 141 References editNotes edit Alchian not only remained a giant at the University of California Los Angeles He was also viewed as a pioneer and co founder of the New Institutional Economics revival of which UCLA was at the center 51 He devoted much of his career to studying property rights 53 Anthony J Culyer Politically he was a libertarian 22 Alchian ranked fourth behind Gordon Tullock George Stigler and Ludwig von Mises in a 2011 survey asking economists the following question One might think of a character type of economist that is well represented by the following five economists Adam Smith Friedrich Hayek Milton Friedman Ronald Coase and James Buchanan For that character type which five additional economists would you include in a top ten list of representatives of that character type 106 Williams Professor Alchian is among the top 20th century contributors to economic knowledge 108 Professor Alchian was probably the greatest microeconomic theorist of the 20th century 109 Boudreaux The world has lost two of the past century s greatest economists in as many months Armen Alchian died this morning More later on this great economist a scholar who I believe probably is history s greatest pure microeconomic theorist 110 One Google response was someone saying that Armen should get a Nobel Prize I concur 111 Intriligator who has known Alchian since 1962 said his colleague would be a very good candidate for the Nobel Prize in economics 20 Many of Alchian s students and friends believed that he well deserved a Nobel Prize in economics but this recognition never came to him 26 At the end of the day was the denial of Nobel status to Armen Alchian unjust Yes to many of us at least 114 Coase did receive a Nobel Prize in 1991 Two people more than any have shaped my thinking in economics One was Armen Alchian and the other Alan Williams 22 Alchian interviewed me for a possible appointment at UCLA This was the beginning of a long friendship and a very productive intellectual exchange This exchange shaped my thinking over the decades 61 Like others who have had the privilege of being Armen s students and colleagues I have learned a great deal from his ideas 115 Citations edit Marcus Morton May 18 2014 What let us assume wording leaves out South Bend Tribune Archived from the original on 31 August 2021 His work along with that of others including notably Armen Alchian of UCLA became the backbone for the merged study of law and economics Wolpert Stuart November 5 1998 Nobel Laureate William F Sharpe Awarded UCLA Medal at Ceremony Honoring UCLA Economists newsroom ucla edu UCLA Newsroom Archived from the original on 2017 07 25 Sharpe who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990 was a student of Alchian at UCLA and considered him to be a valuable role model as well as his thesis adviser Henderson David R Hooper Charles L 2006 Making Great Decisions in Business and Life Chicago Park Press p 16 ISBN 978 0976854104 I DRH learned this as a Ph D student of noted UCLA economist Armen Alchian a b Cheung Steven N S February 21 2013 Eulogy on Armen Alchian by Steven N S Cheung Hong Kong Economic Journal in Chinese Translated by Fred K Luk Kam Ming Wan Chi Wa Yuen Michael T Cheung Archived English version My doctoral dissertation The Theory of Share Tenancy was written under the co supervision of Armen Alchian and Jack Hirshleifer Universal Economics libertyfund org Liberty Fund Archived from the original on 11 January 2020 Jerry L Jordan wrote his doctoral dissertation under the direction of Armen Alchian De Vany Arthur July 1996 Information Chance and Evolution Alchian and the Economics of Self Organization Economic Inquiry 34 3 427 doi 10 1111 j 1465 7295 1996 tb01387 x Smith and Hayek described it Alchian gave the evolutionary proof a b c d e f Armen A Alchian Distinguished Fellow The American Economic Review 87 3 June 1997 JSTOR 2951344 California Death Index 1940 1997 database FamilySearch https familysearch org ark 61903 1 1 VPC3 8M1 26 November 2014 Alex H Alchian 06 Feb 1979 Department of Public Health Services Sacramento a b The Armenian Adam Smith UCLA Holds Conference in Honor of Armenian Economist Asbarez May 26 2006 Archived from the original on 11 January 2020 United States Census 1920 database with images FamilySearch https www familysearch org ark 61903 1 1 MH3P G93 31 January 2021 Alexander Alchian 1920 a b Read 2015 pp 137 138 a b c d e Armen Alchian Los Angeles Times Legacy com February 24 2013 Archived from the original on 9 January 2020 California Marriages 1850 1945 database FamilySearch https familysearch org ark 61903 1 1 H9W8 2L3Z 24 March 2020 Alexander H Alchian 1909 a b c d e Read 2015 p 138 Florida Death Index 1877 1998 database FamilySearch https familysearch org ark 61903 1 1 VVCS BG4 25 December 2014 Robert Haig Alchian 01 Jun 1995 from Florida Death Index 1877 1998 index Ancestry www ancestry com 2004 citing vol certificate number 69005 Florida Department of Health Office of Vital Records Jacksonville a b Read 2015 p 137 Alchian Armen Albert 1977 Economic Forces at Work Liberty Press p 8 ISBN 978 0913966358 a b c d e f g h Henderson David R February 19 2013 An Economist Who Made the Science Less Dismal The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 10 November 2023 The Armenian Adam Smith UCLA Holds Conference in Honor of Armenian Economist Asbarez May 26 2006 Archived from the original on 7 September 2022 a b c d e f g h Clough Richard May 7 2006 An economic tradition Daily Bruin Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 a b c d e f g h i Beaud Michel in French Dostaler Gilles in French 1995 ALCHIAN Armen Albert born 1914 Economic Thought Since Keynes A History and Dictionary of Major Economists London and New York Routledge pp 152 153 ISBN 0415164540 a b c Culyer Anthony J 2015 Acceptance Speech Standing on the Shoulders of Giants PDF Value amp Outcomes Spotlight The Office of Health Economics pp 32 34 Read 2015 p 139 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Sullivan Meg February 19 2013 Obituary Armen Alchian 98 professor emeritus of economics at UCLA UCLA Newsroom University of California Los Angeles Archived from the original on 7 January 2020 Read 2015 p 167 a b c d e f Higgs Robert February 19 2013 Armen Alchian April 12 1914 February 19 2013 Independent Institute Archived from the original on 7 January 2020 a b Alchian et al 1996 p 416 a b Crane Jennifer March 7 2013 Professor emeritus in economics Armen Alchian dies Daily Bruin Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Nik Khah Edward 2011 George Stigler the Graduate School of Business and the Pillars of the Chicago School In Van Horn Robert Mirowski Philip Stapleford Thomas A eds Building Chicago Economics New Perspectives on the History of America s Most Powerful Economics Program Cambridge University Press p 247 ISBN 978 1139004077 Muris Timothy 15 January 2003 Improving the Economic Foundations of Competition Policy ftc gov Federal Trade Commission Archived from the original on 29 August 2021 DiQuattro Arthur May 1980 The Market and Liberal Values Political Theory 8 2 188 doi 10 1177 009059178000800204 JSTOR 190794 S2CID 148206353 Consider what two important neoclassicists tell students in their introductory text Exchange and Production Theory in Use Alchian and Allen write Tieben Bert 2009 The Concept of Equilibrium in Different Economic Traditions A Historical Investigation Rozenberg Publishers p 486 ISBN 978 9036101097 In the 1950s this conclusion provoked a response from the defenders of the neoclassical theory of the firm like Alchian 1950 and Friedman 1953 Mayhew Anne 2008 Narrating the Rise of Big Business in the USA How Economists Explain Standard Oil and Wal Mart Routledge p 79 ISBN 9781135973445 Armen Alchian a widely respected economic theorist associated with the Chicago School McCloskey Deirdre N 1994 Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics Cambridge University Press p 160 ISBN 978 0521436038 that Chicago economists such as Ronald Coase and Armen Alchian Armen A Alchian Independent Institute Archived from the original on 7 January 2020 a b Read 2015 p 160 Boettke Peter J Zywicki Todd J 2017 Law and economics the contributions of the Austrian School of Economics In Zywicki Todd J Boettke Peter J eds Research Handbook on Austrian Law and Economics Cheltenham UK Edward Elgar Publishing p 23 ISBN 978 1849801133 The Austrian school of economics in its historical and contemporary embodiment as well as the various thinkers that it influenced along the way such as Alchian Bitetti Rosamaria 2019 Principles of the Austrian Tradition in the Policy Cycle In Horwitz Steven ed Austrian Economics The Next Generation Emerald Publishing p 147 ISBN 978 1787565784 thinkers and authors who are not officially Austrian economists but rather fellow travelers from Austrian friendly schools Just to name a few Alchian and Demsetz and property rights economics Hunt E K Lautzenheiser Mark 2011 History of Economic Thought 3rd ed Armonk New York M E Sharpe p 478 In a widely used textbook University Economics written from the Austrian and Chicago perspective Armen Alchian and William Allen Ebeling Richard 1991 Austrian Economics Perspectives on the Past and Prospects for the Future Hillsdale College Press p 53 ISBN 978 0916308834 Indeed the property rights revolution in economic theory associated with among others Harold Demsetz and Arman Alchian reveals a sometimes unconscious debt to Austrian insights 37 38 39 40 Boettke Pete December 27 2010 Boettke on Mises EconTalk Liberty Fund Archived from the original on 28 February 2019 Alchian got a lot of those arguments from Hayek and Mises O Driscoll Jerry September 9 2010 There is no such thing as macroeconomics The Christian Science Monitor Archived from the original on 10 June 2017 the UCLA tradition as by Mises and Hayek Mises and Hayek had an important influence on that tradition however Manne Henry January 18 2011 Alchian s connections with Austrian economics coordinationproblem org Coordination Problem Archived from the original on 14 September 2021 Armen Alchian s connections with Austrian economics I also have some trivia I first met Armen at a small conference in 1958 at which he presented a first draft of what became the seminal Some Economics of Property Rights He began his lecture with a lengthy quote from Mises Human Action Tape Alchian November 11 1978 Nobel Prize Winning Economist Interviews Oral History Program University of California Los Angeles 1983 pp 362 429 Armen A Alchian interviews Friedrich A Hayek Part I The Hayek Interviews Universidad Francisco Marroquin November 11 1978 Archived from the original on 10 January 2020 Armen A Alchian interviews Friedrich A Hayek Part II The Hayek Interviews Universidad Francisco Marroquin November 11 1978 Ebenstein Alan 2003 Hayek s Journey The Mind of Friedrich Hayek Palgrave Macmillan p 107 ISBN 1403960380 Ardalan Kavous 2018 Case Method and Pluralist Economics Philosophy Methodology and Practice Springer p 189 ISBN 978 3319720708 Contemporary Austrian school economists reflect a more diverse mix of intellectual traditions in economic science as they have been influenced by modern figures in economics such as Armen Alchian a b Boettke Peter J Candela Rosolino A 2014 Alchian Buchanan and Coase A Neglected Branch of Chicago Price Theory Man and the Economy 1 2 De Gruyter 189 208 doi 10 1515 me 2014 0022 S2CID 199575704 a b c Benjamin Daniel February 19 2013 In Memoriam Armen Alchian 1914 2013 Property and Environment Research Center Archived from the original on 14 September 2021 a b Read 2015 p 166 Alchian Armen A Property Rights Library of Economics and Liberty Liberty Fund Archived from the original on 14 November 2019 About the Author Most of his major scientific contributions are in the economics of property rights Sanchez Dan 21 February 2013 Armen Alchian RIP Mises Institute Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Foss Nicolai J 1997 Economics Institutions and Ludwig Von Mises Cultural Dynamics 9 1 83 doi 10 1177 092137409700900105 S2CID 143218062 Menger and Bohm Bawerk are among the few economists to discuss property rights before Coase Alchian and Demsetz in the 1960s laid the foundation for the property rights approach Pejovich Svetozar 1973 Comment on Paper by Alchian and Demsetz The Journal of Economic History 33 1 41 42 doi 10 1017 S0022050700076427 JSTOR 2117140 S2CID 155012746 Boettke Peter June 1 2015 The Austrian Tradition in Economics Libertarianism org Cato Institute Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Newhard Joseph Michael 2014 08 01 The stock market speaks How Dr Alchian learned to build the bomb Journal of Corporate Finance 27 116 132 doi 10 1016 j jcorpfin 2014 05 002 ISSN 0929 1199 a b Woodward Susan June 2017 Memories of Armen Journal of Corporate Finance 44 385 387 doi 10 1016 j jcorpfin 2016 03 007 Alchian Armen A June 1950 Uncertainty Evolution and Economic Theory Journal of Political Economy 58 3 211 221 doi 10 1086 256940 JSTOR 1827159 S2CID 36045710 Manne Geoffrey A Zywicki Todd J 9 March 2014 Uncertainty Evolution and Behavioral Economic Theory Journal of Law Economics amp Policy 10 3 555 580 SSRN 2406175 a b Brunner Karl March 1987 Armen A Alchian Zeitschrift fur die gesamte Staatswissenschaft 143 1 229 231 JSTOR 40750974 Alchian Armen October 1963 Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production Econometrica 31 4 679 693 doi 10 2307 1909166 JSTOR 1909166 Mishina Kazuhiro 1999 Learning by New Experiences Revisiting the Flying Fortress Learning Curve In Lamoreaux Naomi R Raff Daniel M G Temin Peter eds Learning by Doing in Markets Firms and Countries PDF University of Chicago Press p 145 Archived from the original PDF on 27 November 2021 Argote Linda Epple Dennis 1990 Learning Curves in Manufacturing Science 247 4945 920 924 Bibcode 1990Sci 247 920A doi 10 1126 science 247 4945 920 PMID 17776451 S2CID 21055499 a b c Hubbard Thomas N February 20 2013 A Legend in Economics Passes digitopoly org Archived from the original on 10 September 2022 Alchian Armen A June 1969 Information Costs Pricing and Resource Unemployment Western Economic Journal 7 2 109 128 a b Lott Jr John R July 1996 Armen A Alchian s influence on economics Economic Inquiry 34 3 409 411 doi 10 1111 j 1465 7295 1996 tb01385 x Alchian Armen A Demsetz Harold December 1972 Production Information Costs and Economic Organization The American Economic Review 62 5 777 795 JSTOR 1815199 a b Hubbard Thomas N 30 January 2019 The ideas of Harold Demsetz 1930 2019 Centre for Economic Policy Research Archived from the original on 11 September 2022 Arrow Kenneth J Bernheim B Douglas Feldstein Martin S McFadden Daniel L Poterba James M Solow Robert M February 2011 100 Years of the American Economic Review The Top 20 Articles The American Economic Review 101 1 1 8 doi 10 1257 aer 101 1 1 hdl 1721 1 114169 JSTOR 41038778 Torgler Benno Piatti Marco 2013 Top Institutions Top Papers and Leading Economists Publishing in AER A Century of American Economic Review Insights on Critical Factors in Journal Publishing Palgrave Macmillan p 23 doi 10 1057 9781137333056 2 ISBN 978 1349462049 Kim E Han Morse Adair Zingales Luigi 2006 What Has Mattered to Economics since 1970 Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 4 189 202 doi 10 1257 jep 20 4 189 hdl 2027 42 48735 JSTOR 30033690 Hall Joshua C Lawson Robert A January 2014 Economic Freedom Of The World An Accounting Of The Literature Contemporary Economic Policy 32 1 2 doi 10 1111 coep 12010 S2CID 154941466 classical liberal scholars including Armen Alchian Peter Bauer Gary Becker Boettke Peter 9 June 2015 Pivotal People at Pivotal Times John Blundell Adam Smith Institute Archived from the original on 2 December 2018 The international movement for classical liberalism to advance the ideas of liberty the intellectual heritage of of Alchian Ashford Nigel Davies Stephen eds 2012 Conservatives and classical liberals cited in the text A Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought Routledge p 280 ISBN 978 1136708336 Chickering A Lawrence 1993 Beyond Left and Right Breaking the Political Stalemate Institute for Contemporary Studies p 33 ISBN 978 1558152090 the libertarian economist Armen Alchian King J E 2021 F A Hayek Economics Political Economy and Social Philosophy History of Economics Review 79 1 75 77 doi 10 1080 10370196 2021 1883367 S2CID 236344818 his influence on such contemporary libertarian thinkers as Armen Alchian James Buchanan and Ronald Coase Hodgson Geoffrey M 1999 Evolution and Institutions On Evolutionary Economics and the Evolution of Economics Edward Elgar Publishing p 162 the kind of Panglossian and laissez faire conclusions that Alchian and Friedman had proposed Meister Robert 2012 After Evil A Politics of Human Rights Columbia University Press p 236 ISBN 978 0231150378 Alchian s free market individualism Machan Tibor R 1975 Human Rights and Human Liberties A Radical Reconsideration of the American Political Tradition Chicago Nelson Hall Publishers p 258 ISBN 978 0882291598 To name just a few who are now engaged in research and analysis pointing to a free market approach to the problems facing us the ranks include Milton Friedman Yale Brozen Harold Demsetz Armen Alchian Poole Robert May 1976 Spotlight Henry G Manne Reason Archived from the original on 6 September 2021 Bringing in such distinguished free market economists as UCLA s Armen Alchian Mont Pelerin Society DeSmogBlog Archived from the original on 9 January 2020 Armen A Alchian 1914 2013 1957 a b Alchian et al 1996 p 420 a b Alchian Armen A July 13 1977 Of Golf Capitalism and Socialism PDF The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original PDF on 11 January 2020 Individual and Business Tax Reduction Proposals Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Taxation and Debt Management Generally of the Committee on Finance United States Senate Ninety Fifth Congress Second Session July 14 1978 U S Government Printing Office Washington 1978 p 83 Friedman Milton 1993 Why Government Is the Problem Hoover Press p 8 ISBN 978 0817954437 My old friend Armen Alchian Brunie Charles H April 11 2007 My Friend Milton Friedman City Journal Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Schroeder Gertrude E Summer 1988 Property rights issues in economic reforms in socialist countries Studies in Comparative Communism 21 2 175 188 doi 10 1016 0039 3592 88 90012 9 Riesman David 1999 Conservative Capitalism The Social Economy St Martin s Press p 149 ISBN 978 0333982785 Palermo Giulio 2007 Misconceptions of power From Alchian and Demsetz to Bowles and Gintis Capital amp Class 31 2 Conference of Socialist Economists 147 185 doi 10 1177 030981680709200107 hdl 11379 35559 S2CID 54869425 England Richard W 1994 Evolutionary Concepts in Contemporary Economics University of Michigan Press p 11 ISBN 978 0472104833 Watkins John P 1998 Towards a Reconsideration of Social Evolution Symbiosis and Its Implications for Economics Journal of Economic Issues 32 1 91 doi 10 1080 00213624 1998 11506013 JSTOR 4227280 Young Ryan March 5 2019 What Do Economists Think about the Minimum Wage cei org Competitive Enterprise Institute Archived from the original on 17 February 2022 Henderson David R Summer 2012 Up From Poverty PDF Regulation Cato Institute 68 Archived from the original PDF on 2021 09 18 Armen Alchian recommended that he read studies about how minimum wage laws dried up job opportunities for unskilled workers Alchian Armen A 17 June 1979 Lift price controls gas shortage would end Boca Raton News Archived from the original on 28 October 2023 a b c Sharpe William F 1995 William Sharpe In Breit William Spencer Roger W eds Lives of the Laureates Thirteen Nobel Economists 3rd ed Cambridge Massachusetts The MIT Press pp 203 226 ISBN 978 0262023917 Hanke Steve H June 2016 Remembrances of a Currency Reformer Some Notes and Sketches from the Field PDF Studies in Applied Economics 55 Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics Global Health and Study of Business Enterprise 2 Archived from the original PDF on 2022 02 02 Obituaries stanfordmag org STANFORD magazine September 2017 Archived from the original on 10 August 2021 a b c Read 2015 p 170 California Birth Index 1905 1995 database FamilySearch https familysearch org ark 61903 1 1 V2WF ZDW 27 November 2014 Arline Ann Alchian 26 Apr 1943 citing Fresno California United States Department of Health Services Vital Statistics Department Sacramento California Birth Index 1905 1995 database FamilySearch https familysearch org ark 61903 1 1 V27G N4Q 27 November 2014 Allen Alexander Alchian 27 Mar 1947 citing Los Angeles California United States Department of Health Services Vital Statistics Department Sacramento Levine David K Armen A Alchian dklevine com Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 a b c d e Allen William R September 2010 A Life among the Econ Particularly at UCLA Econ Journal Watch 7 3 205 234 archived Read 2015 p 141 McCloskey Deirdre N 1996 Economic Tourism Eastern Economic Journal 22 3 365 368 JSTOR 40325725 Palmer Tom G March 25 2007 Oddballs vs Scholars For Negative Liberty Against the Welfare State cato unbound org Cato Institute Archived from the original on 4 May 2017 Farmer Roger E A 27 October 2023 When I came to UCLA in 1987 Armen was winding down in terms of research output Twitter Archived from the original on 27 October 2023 Calcagno Peter T Whitson Whitney June 2011 Of Golf Capitalism and Socialism An Empirical Analysis Atlantic Economic Journal 39 2 199 200 doi 10 1007 s11293 011 9267 1 S2CID 154796026 Alchian et al 1996 pp 418 419 Davis William L Figgins Bob Hedengren David Klein Daniel B May 2011 Economics Professors Favorite Economic Thinkers Journals and Blogs along with Party and Policy Views Econ Journal Watch 8 2 137 Klein Daniel B January 2009 Desperately Seeking Smithians Responses to the Questionnaire about Building an Identity Econ Journal Watch 6 1 113 114 Blanchard III James U 1984 Exclusive Interview with F A Hayek Cato Policy Report VI 5 Cato Institute 10 12 Archived from the original on July 30 2015 archived PDF Q Who s your favorite economist besides F A Hayek Hayek Well among the not really young ones are Armen Alchian and George Stigler Until recently my dear friend Lionel Robbins who has had a stroke and is now out of action a b Williams Walter E July 4 2007 Do People Care Townhall Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Williams Walter E October 11 2018 WILLIAMS Finally some real economics Toronto Sun Boudreaux Don February 19 2013 Armen A Alchian 1914 2013 Cafe Hayek Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Glasner David February 25 2013 Armen Alchian The Economists Economist uneasymoney com Uneasy Money Archived from the original on 18 September 2021 Henderson David R October 9 2003 Nobel Econometricians The Wall Street Journal Three main candidates come to mind Armen Alchian Henderson David R October 12 2006 Laureate Phelps The Wall Street Journal Grant the award to Armen Alchian age 92 Gordon Tullock 84 or Arnold Harberger 82 Schneiderman R M October 12 2009 Reactions to the Nobel in Economic Science economix blogs nytimes com The New York Times Archived from the original on 29 August 2021 McChesney Fred S 2014 Magnus Magister An Affectionate Appreciation of Armen Alchian Journal of Law Economics amp Policy 10 3 597 S2CID 185331687 a b Alchian et al 1996 p 418 Ballandonne Matthieu 2015 Creating Increasing Returns The Genesis of Arrow s Learning by Doing Article History of Political Economy 47 3 449 479 doi 10 1215 00182702 3153140 Hall Joshua C 2020 Academia in Anarchy 50 years on Public Choice 183 3 4 407 doi 10 1007 s11127 020 00793 7 S2CID 216398194 Lott Jr John R 1997 In celebration of Armen Alchian s eightieth birthday In Lott Jr John R ed Uncertainty and Economic Evolution Essays in Honour of Armen Alchian Routledge p 187 Ostrom Elinor February 2011 Lecture I Frameworks Lecture II Analyzing One Hundred Year Old Irrigation Puzzles PDF The Tanner Lectures on Human Values Stanford University p 116 Archived from the original PDF on 23 July 2020 Lott John December 1978 Spotlight Economics Educator Reason Archived from the original on 19 August 2022 Alchian et al 1996 p 412 Demsetz Harold March 1987 An Appreciation of Armen A Alchian s Contribution to the Theory of the Firm Zeitschrift fur die gesamte Staatswissenschaft 143 1 3 6 JSTOR 40750949 Hanke Steve March 6 2013 Letter to the WSJ Armen Alchian s Wise Economics The Wall Street Journal Cato Institute Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Henry G Manne 52 1928 2015 law uchicago edu University of Chicago Law School Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 His intellectual heroes and intellectual peers were classical liberal economists like Friedrich Hayek Ludwig Mises Armen Alchian and Harold Demsetz Lueck Dean 2019 Yoram Barzel and the Economics of Institutions Man and the Economy 5 2 doi 10 1515 me 2018 0011 S2CID 158284820 SSRN 744224 More generally Barzel has been heavily influenced by Armen Alchian and a great admirer of him Prychitko David L November 21 2010 That s Interesting But Does It Pass The Alchian Test coordinationproblem org Archived from the original on 14 September 2015 I was raised on Alchian amp Allen having learned most of my economics from two of Alchian s students from the 1960s Phil May and Howard Swaine Alchian ranks with Mises and Hayek among my favorite and I believe most insightful economists De Vany Arthur 1996 Information chance and evolution Alchian and the economics of self organization Economic Inquiry 34 3 428 doi 10 1111 j 1465 7295 1996 tb01387 x Alchian s teaching shaped my understanding of economics Jordan Jerry L 2017 Hayek in His Own Words The Journal of Private Enterprise 32 1 2 In a conversation with one of my teachers Armen Alchian Klein Peter G 19 February 2013 Doug Allen on Alchian organizationsandmarkets com Organizations and Markets Archived from the original on 30 August 2021 I only met Armen once but his influence on me was profound Alchian et al 1996 pp 412 422 MONT PELERIN SOCIETY DIRECTORY 2010 PDF DeSmogBlog Archived from the original PDF on 2020 01 12 Retrieved 2020 01 12 Professor Armen A Alchian 1957 Life Member Past Presidents PDF 92nd Annual Conference Program Western Economic Association International June 2017 p 5 Archived from the original PDF on 11 January 2020 Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1780 2019 A PDF American Academy of Arts and Sciences Archived from the original PDF on 9 January 2020 Alchian Armen Albert 1914 2013 Election 1978 Fellow Distinguished Fellows American Economic Association Archived from the original on 9 January 2020 Adam Smith Award apee org Association of Private Enterprise Education Archived from the original on 27 September 2021 Rescuing Social Capital from Social Democracy PDF About the IEA Institute of Economic Affairs p 107 Archived from the original PDF on 30 November 2019 Honorary Fellows Professor Armen A Alchian Commencement PDF Rochester Review University of Rochester 20 Summer 1983 Archived from the original PDF on 2020 01 09 When the 1983 Commencement finally ended four weeks after it began some 2 100 new degrees had been awarded including three more honorary doctorates to the distinguished economist Armen A Alchian of the University of California at Los Angeles at the GSM exercises Honorary Doctoral Degrees ufm edu Universidad Francisco Marroquin Archived from the original on 2011 05 01 May 8 2010 ARMEN A ALCHIAN Levine David K The Armen Alchian Chair in Economic Theory dklevine com Archived from the original on 11 January 2020 Best Paper Awards Armenian Economic Association Archived from the original on 10 January 2020 Takooshian Harold 2020 Armenian Americans in the Behavioral Sciences Main Issues of Pedagogy and Psychology 18 2 Khachatur Abovyan Armenian State Pedagogical University 8 doi 10 24234 miopap v18i2 374 inactive 2024 04 25 ISSN 1829 1295 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint DOI inactive as of April 2024 link Bibliography edit Alchian Armen A Buchanan James M Demsetz Harold Leijonhufvud Axel Lott Jr John R Sharpe Williams F Topel Robert H July 1996 In celebration of Armen Alchian s 80th birthday Living and breathing economics Economic Inquiry 34 3 Western Economic Association International 412 426 doi 10 1111 j 1465 7295 1996 tb01386 x Read Colin 2015 The Corporate Financiers Williams Modigliani Miller Coase Williamson Alchian Demsetz Jensen and Meckling Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978 1137341280 Armen Alchian publications indexed by Google Scholar Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Armen Alchian amp oldid 1220775173, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.