Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics
The Gary Becker Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics[1] was established at the University of Chicago in June 2011 as a collaborative, cross-disciplinary center for research in economics. It brought together the activities of two formerly independent economic research centers at the University: the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics and the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, founded by Richard O. Ryan, MBA ’66.
The institute is named for Gary Becker and his mentor, the late Milton Friedman, both winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. While they pursued very different paths, Becker and Friedman shared a fundamental belief that economics, grounded in empirical research, is a powerful tool to understand human behavior. While Friedman is known for his lasting contributions to macroeconomics, Becker is recognized for extending microeconomic analysis to a wide range of fields and topics.
A collaboration of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Law School, and Department of Economics, the Institute builds bridges across disciplines and subfields of economics, bringing scholars together to share perspectives and ideas. It does so by hosting visiting scholars, organizing conferences to discuss and enhance new research scholars, and offering programs and support for students and promising young researchers. It supports research initiatives in traditional Chicago strengths such as price theory, law and economics, and human capital, as well as topical inquiries into important policy issues such as fiscal imbalance, systemic risk, and economics of the family, and new areas like field experiments in economics.
References
- ↑ "Becker Friedman Institute established at University of Chicago". June 17, 2011.