I am about to order this book. I have just read its quite favorable reviews, and I am not a bit surprised at their being impressed by Armen Alchian’s writings. I was a colleague of Armen’s, at the Rand Corporation “think tank,” during the 1950s, and hold no economist in higher regard. When I sat down at my keyboard just now it was to find out what happened to Armen’s works. One Google response was someone saying that Armen should get a Nobel Prize. I concur. My own Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded in 1990 along with the prize for Wm. Sharpe. I see in Wikipedia that Armen “influenced” Bill, and that Armen is still alive and is 96 years old. I’ll see if I can contact him, but first I’ll buy this book.

This is from Nobel prize winner Harry Markowitz’s Amazon review of Armen A. Alchian’s and William R. Allen’s University Economics, the book that I learned more economics from than from any other.

Here is the bio I wrote on Harry Markowitz.

Here are links to my numerous posts on Alchian. And here’s my favorite post on Alchian.

HT2 Scott King.