Deirdre McCloskey

- Distinguished Affiliated Fellow, F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Deirdre N. McCloskey is a Distinguished Affiliated Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. From 2000-2015, McCloskey was the UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was Visiting Tinbergen Professor (2002-2006) of Philosophy, Economics, and Art and Cultural Studies at Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Trained at Harvard as an economist, by her own account she "drifted," writing on economic theory, economic history, philosophy, rhetoric, feminism, ethics, transgender advocacy, statistical theory, politics, and law. She taught for twelve years in economics at the University of Chicago, and was tenured there. She now describes herself as a "postmodern, free-market, quantitative, literary, Episcopalian, feminist Aristotelian." Her main scientific work began in the 1960s with British economic history, but widened to world history, especially in her trilogy The Bourgeois Era: The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for a Commercial Society (2006), Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World (2010), and Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World (2016).
For a current list of publications, view her personal website.
Publications & Appearances
- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Books Books
Beyond Positivism, Behaviorism, and Neoinstitutionalism in Economics

- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Journal Articles Journal Articles
Beyond behaviorism, positivism, and neo-institutionalism in economics
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
The Great Enrichment
The Great Recession of 2008, and now the Greater Recession, might distract you from the vastly bigger story of our times: the...
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
The Great Enrichment
As we try to restart the economy, it is important to remember the source of our prosperity. Read more at Discourse.
- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Hayek Program Podcast Hayek Program Podcast
Deirdre McCloskey on Bourgeois Dignity
In this archived episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Distinguished Affiliated Fellow Deirdre McCloskey considers the insights...
- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
The Immoral Equivalent of War
We are in a war, say all the presidents, the thoughtful and quasi-liberal presidents such as Emmanuel Macron in France and Moon...
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
The Immoral Equivalent of War
Worse than the pandemic is the statism and even fascism that could arise in its wake. Read more at Discourse.
- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Journal Articles Journal Articles
What’s Still Right With the Austrian School of Economics
- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Books Books
Why Liberalism Works

- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Journal Articles Journal Articles