By George S. Tavlas
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023.
Pp. xviii, 632. $50 hardcover.
There has been a longstanding debate about the existence of a “Chicago school” of economics that emphasizes free markets and limited government (Steven G. Medema, 2023, “Identifying a ‘Chicago School’ of Economics: On the Origins, Diffusion, and Evolving Meanings of a Famous Name Brand,” , online, 1–32). One part of the debate has focused on monetary economics. In 1956, Milton Friedman famously claimed that his work on monetarism—the idea that inflation is a monetary phenomenon and that limiting the growth 1, no. 1, 46–70) rejected the claim that there was something special about monetary economics at Chicago during this period, leading Friedman to partially withdraw his claim. Ever since, it has been generally believed that there was no particular or distinctive monetary analysis at Chicago prior to Friedman.
