The Chicago School of Economics refers to the free market approach to economics advocated by members of the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. The Chicago School approach began in the 1930s under Frank Knight and persisted for decades producing multiple Nobel Prize winners. In addition to Knight, some of the leading and more well-known figures include Gary Becker, Ronald Coase, Aaron Director, Milton Friedman, Merton Miller, Richard Posner, and George Stigler. The Chicago School of Economics is also associated with the law and economics approach to jurisprudence developed at the University of Chicago Law School.

At the heart of the Chicago School approach are neoclassical price theory and a belief in free markets. Simply stated, the Chicago School approach stands for the belief ...