Recently at a small Mercatus Center event I was asked “Excluding Adam Smith and F.A. Hayek, which four economists would Don Boudreaux put on the Mt. Rushmore of economics.” It’s a fun question, but one that I wasn’t expecting. In my answer I left out – embarrassingly – one unambiguous candidate for this honor: James Buchanan.
So, my Mt. Rushmore of economics (excluding Smith and Hayek) would feature:
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But, gosh, what a difficult choice. Close contenders for the fourth spot are Ronald Coase, Harold Demsetz, Deirdre McCloskey, and Ludwig von Mises.
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Of course, were there to be an actual Mt. Rushmore of economics, Smith and Hayek would unquestionably be on it. The other two, for me, would be Alchian and Buchanan (although choosing Buchanan over Friedman is a very close call).
