George J. Stigler Won Nobel Prize in 1982 for Studies in Industrial Organization and Causes and Effects of Government Regulation

George J. Stigler, a member of the NBER Board of Directors and former research associate, won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982 “for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation.”

Stigler “has made fundamental contributions to the study of market processes and the analysis of the structure of industries,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in awarding the prize. “His studies of the forces which give rise to regulatory legislation have opened up a completely new area of economic research.” Stigler introduced the idea of regulatory capture, which holds that regulators can be dominated by special interests and work for the benefit of large, monied organizations rather than the public good.

At the time of the award, Stigler was professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he founded the Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.

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