George J. Stigler’s Relationship to the Virginia School of Political Economy

Abstract

Our paper contrasts George J. Stigler’s credentials to the Chicago School of Economics and his relationship to the Virginia School of Political Economy. Stigler’s Chicago School refers to work of Stigler, Gary Becker, and Sam Peltzman. Virginia School refers to the Virginia School of Political Economy associated with the work of James M. Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, and Ronald H. Coase. We draw out similarities and highlight differences between the two schools, although their core shares methodological individualism and Smith’s invisible hand. Stigler is a neoclassical economist, while Buchanan, an Austrian, founded Constitutional Political Economy and co-founded Public Choice, both sub-disciplines as part of the broader enterprise known as the “Virginia School.” Buchanan’s co-founder of Public Choice, Tullock may be more aptly described as homo economicus. Although at Chicago for much of his career, Coase was a major contributor to the Charlottesville epoch of the Virginia School (1957–1968) and leading figure in the New Institutional School.