Friedman, David (1945-)

David Friedman, like his late father Milton Friedman, is both an academic economist and a popular intellectual with an unabashed libertarian orientation. However, there are important differences between the views embraced by the two men. Academically, David Friedman is best known for his largely theoretical work in the economic analysis of law and his textbook-level writings on microeconomics. Politically, he is an advocate of the radical libertarian position known as “anarcho-capitalism,” arguing that even the limited functions of the night-watchman state (police, courts, law, and punishment) can and should be privately supplied. Unlike other anarcho-capitalists, most notably Murray Rothbard, Friedman does not deny the theoretical cogency of the neoclassical literature on market failure, nor has he been inclined to attack economic efficiency as a ...

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