Hayek and the Chicago School

Hayek was at the University of Chicago from 1950 to 1962 and worked as part of the Committee on Social Thought. Despite his 12-year tenure at Chicago and his eventual influence on the trajectory of post-war economics in the United States, the historical record indicates that Hayek had little influence on the rise of post-war Chicago School during his time there.1 Most of the seminal figures of the post-war Chicago School — Milton Friedman, Allen Wallis, and Aaron Director — had all been hired in 1946, four years before Hayek arrived at Chicago. When Hayek came, because he joined the Committee on Social Thought, he did not work in the Economics Department, the Law School, or the Business School — the three pillars of the post-war Chicago School. Moreover, Hayek principally focused on political philosophy, not economics, while he served as part of the Committee.