The ideological drift of Nobel laureates in economics

The new issue of Econ Journal Watch is online. It is a bit different from most issues, being devoted to a survey of the ideological stances of 71 Nobel economists – with profile of all of them.The aim is to assess how their opinion changes, and whether Nobel economists tend to become more or less classical liberal throughout their lives.

George Mason economist Daniel Klein led the project, a very substantial piece of work. Twelve of the laureates replied to a questionnaire seeking to identify their ideological outlooks at different times in their lives. Klein discusses the results in an audio podcast. The bottom line? Most of the Nobel economists (51 of them) did not noticeably change their views. Of those that did, a larger number grew more classical liberal over their lives than grew less classical liberal.