Libertarian Nobel Prize Winners

Nobel Prize winners who have called themselves libertarian (there probably are more I don't know about):

• Friedrich Hayek, 1974, Economics. Hayek was one of the leaders of the Austrian school of economics.

• Milton Friedman, 1976, Economics. Friedman is one of the founders of the Monetarist school of economics, which advocates a free-market economy with strict control over the money supply.

• James Buchanan, 1986, Economics. Buchanan won the prize for developing the "Public Choice" school of economics, which analyzes political behavior (of voters, politicans and lobbyists) in terms of self-interest.

• Gary Becker, 1992, Economics. The Chicago-school economist is a leader and former president of the free-market Mont Pelerin Society.

• Kary Mullis, 1993, Chemistry. Mullis won the prize for figuring out how to make unlimited copies of DNA. In the Fort Bragg, California, Advocate News, a reporter noted that Mullis "talks about his Libertarian philosophy" as just one of "his wildly divergent interests. Government, he feels, is best suited to protect groups of people from outside interference, but ill-suited to dictate how individuals should lead their private lives."

• Vernon Smith, 2002, Economics (shared). The public choice economist pioneered 'experimental economics,' using simulations to predict the outcome of regulatory changes (particularly with regard to energy markets).