Armen Alchian

Notable publications

Alchian was not prolific and did not author many books and articles. Mark Blaug described it as standing out "among all of its rivals by a consistent emphasis on the actual or potential role of markets as a device for organising economic life." It is Alchian's first major paper that brought him attention. was completed for the RAND Corporation by 1949, but was not published until 14 years later because it relied on military classified data. A pioneering work, Linda Argote and Dennis Epple noted that it stimulated interest in organizational learning curve, while Hubbard stated that it is "credited as the first empirical investigation of learning curves – an important feature of many industries." Mark Blaug argued that it was the "beginning of all later 'job search' theories of unemployment." Coauthored with his former student Harold Demsetz, this is Alchian's most cited paper, In fact, it is the most cited of all papers published in the 100 years of existence of the American Economic Review and the 12th most cited economic paper overall between 1970 and mid-2006.

Views Alchian has been described as a classical liberal and libertarian.

Nobel Prize debate Alchian never received a Nobel Prize, but numerous economists, such as Hayek, Michael Intriligator, (Intriligator, who has known Alchian since 1962, said his colleague "would be a very good candidate for the Nobel Prize in economics." Donald J.) Boudreaux, believe he deserved one. Hayek told Henderson in 1975: "There are two economists who deserve the Nobel prize because their work is important but won't get it because they didn't do a lot of work: Ronald Coase and Armen Alchian." James M. Buchanan was inspired by Alchian's work on free tuition. William F. Sharpe, who took a graduate course taught by Alchian in 1956, named him one of his three mentors, whose approach to research he had attempted to emulate. Walter E. Williams called him one of his "tenacious mentors." John Lott stated that University Economics was responsible for him becoming an academic and going to UCLA.

Other noted economists who were students of or were influenced by Alchian include Harold Demsetz, Steve Hanke, Henry Manne, Yoram Barzel, David Prychitko, Anthony J. Culyer, ("Two people more than any have shaped my thinking in economics.) One was Armen Alchian and the other Alan Williams." Jerry Jordan, Douglas W. Allen, Axel Leijonhufvud, Robert H. Topel.

Hubbard argues that Alchian's 1972 paper "Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization" influenced works in the economics of organization by Bengt Holmström, Oliver Hart, and Paul Milgrom. President of the Western Economic Association International Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association (1996) Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs

Honorary doctorates University of Rochester (1983) Universidad Francisco Marroquín (2010)

Tributes The Armen A. Alchian Chair in Economic Theory at UCLA The Armenian Economic Association presents the Armen Alchian Award since 2014.

Selected works Articles