19,82 George J. Stigler

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1982 George J. Stigler "for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation"

Stigler is best known for developing the Economic Theory of Regulation, also known as capture, which says that interest groups and other political participants will use the regulatory and coercive powers of government to shape laws and regulations in a way that is beneficial to them. This theory is a component of the public choice field of economics. He also carried out extensive research in the history of economic thought. Stigler's most important contribution to economics was disseminated in his landmark article titled "The Economics of Information".[3] According to Friedman, Stigler "essentially created a new area of study for economists." In this article, Stigler stressed the importance of information by writing, "One should hardly have to tell academicians that information is a valuable resource: knowledge is power. And yet it occupies a slum dwelling in the town of economics."