Hayek's Nobel: 50 Years Later with Bruce Caldwell

In 1974 Friedrich A. Hayek was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal. This year marks the 50th anniversary of that occasion. In his talk, Bruce Caldwell will offer a few vignettes meant to place the event in the context of the times. He will examine Hayek’s life before he got the prize, describe what took place in Stockholm, and offer a summary of the main themes of his Prize Lecture, noting the continuing importance of its main themes. He will close by noting the reception of his address, both at the time and later, and the subsequent impact of the award on Hayek’s life and career.

About the Speaker

Bruce Caldwell is a Research Professor of Economics and the Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University. For the past three decades his research has focused on the work of the Nobel prize-winning economist and social theorist Friedrich Hayek. Caldwell is the author of Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F. A. Hayek, the General Editor of The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, and the editor of MPS 1947: Transcripts of the Founding Meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society. He is currently working on a family authorized biography of Hayek, Hayek: A Life.