The Road to Economic Freedom

Edited by Philip Booth, Institute of Economic Affairs, London, UK and John Meadowcroft, Lecturer in Public Policy, King’s College London, UK

This pathbreaking collection brings together a selection of work by Nobel Prize winning authors from the archives of the Institute of Economic Affairs. The laureates whose work is featured made an important contribution to economists’ understanding of a market economy. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the editors, the publishers or the authors of these outstanding articles would have predicted quite how widespread and important their influence would be. The editors have chosen works to demonstrate the challenge raised by these authors to the socialist consensus of the time amongst both academics and politicians. The volumes are organised by theme, examining issues such as monetary policy, unemployment, and government regulation, as well as considering the power of language and ideas.

‘This symposium brings together contributions of many of those who wrote for the IEA over the years and had their courage rewarded by gaining the Nobel Prize in economics. . . The writings of authors such as Hayek and Friedman are as relevant today, both to academics and politicians, as they were thirty years ago. The collection of essays brought together in The Road to Economic Freedom will therefore be welcomed as much by students of history as by all interested in understanding the contemporary political debate.’
– From the foreword by The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Thatcher