Armen Alchian

Armen Albert Alchian was born on April 12, 1914, in Fresno, California, to Armenian-American parents. His father, Alexander H. Alchian (1884–1979),"California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPC3-8M1 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221143426/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPC3-8M1 |date=2022-12-21 }} : 26 November 2014), Alex H Alchian, 06 Feb 1979; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento. was born in Erzurum, Ottoman Empire and emigrated to the U.S. in 1901,"United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH3P-G93 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221143426/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH3P-G93 |date=2022-12-21 }} : 31 January 2021), Alexander Alchian, 1920. while his mother Lily Normart (1889–1976) was born to Armenian immigrant parents in Fresno.{{sfn|Read|2015|pp=137–138}} Her parents were among the first Armenians to settle in the San Joaquin Valley and she was the first Armenian born in Fresno.{{sfn|Read|2015|pp=137–138}} His parents married in 1909,"California Marriages, 1850–1945", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H9W8-2L3Z {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221143401/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H9W8-2L3Z |date=2022-12-21 }} : 24 March 2020), Alexander H. Alchian, 1909. and Armen had a younger brother, Robert Haig Alchian (1917–1995).{{sfn|Read|2015|p=138}}"Florida Death Index, 1877–1998," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVCS-BG4 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221143432/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVCS-BG4 |date=2022-12-21 }} : 25 December 2014), Robert Haig Alchian, 01 Jun 1995; from "Florida Death Index, 1877–1998," index, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : 2004); citing vol., certificate number 69005, Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, Jacksonville. His father worked as a musician and a jeweler and the family was of "modest means."{{sfn|Read|2015|p=137}} He grew up in the Armenian community, which was initially "subject to intense discrimination."{{cite book |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen Albert |title=Economic Forces at Work |date=1977 |publisher=Liberty Press |isbn=978-0913966358 |page=8}} He himself was reportedly subject to anti-Armenian discrimination early in his life. In the 1920s his family hosted General Andranik, an Armenian national hero, in their home for several months.{{cite news |title="The Armenian Adam Smith": UCLA Holds Conference in Honor of Armenian Economist |url=https://asbarez.com/the-armenian-adam-smith-ucla-holds-conference-in-honor-of-armenian-economist/ |work=Asbarez |date=May 26, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907190223/https://asbarez.com/the-armenian-adam-smith-ucla-holds-conference-in-honor-of-armenian-economist/ |archive-date=7 September 2022 }} Alchian was called "the Armenian Adam Smith" by Michael Intriligator.

Alchian attended Fresno High School, where he excelled academically and athletically.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=138}} He initially enrolled in Fresno State College in 1932 and transferred to Stanford University in 1934, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1936.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=138}} He earned his PhD in philosophy from Stanford in 1943.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=138}} His dissertation was titled "The Effects of Changes in the General Wage Structure."{{sfn|Read|2015|p=138}} Anthony J. Culyer quoted Kenneth Arrow as saying that Alchian was the "brightest economics student Stanford ever had."

Alchian worked as a teaching assistant at Stanford (1937–40), and then in 1940–41 he worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Harvard University and in 1942 at the University of Oregon as an instructor.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=137}} He went on to serve in the Army Air Forces as a statistician between 1942 and 1946.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=139}}

Alchian joined the Department of Economics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1946. He was initially assistant professor (until 1952), then associate professor (until 1958), and eventually named professor in 1958. He retired from UCLA in 1984 and was named professor emeritus of economics. It was not until 2007, at the age of 93, that he closed his campus office.

In classroom, Alchian adopted the Socratic method and disliked the traditional lecture method.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=167}} James M. Buchanan, briefly a colleague in the late 1960s, classified Alchian as "the best blackboard economist" he had ever known.{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|p=416}} In 2006 John Riley, chair of the UCLA economics department, stated that Alchian was the "father of the modern-day economics department at UCLA, and set the future for it." William R. Allen noted that the department's "golden age" was from 1950 to 1980 because of Alchian's presence and leadership in the department.

Alchian was also affiliated with the RAND Corporation between 1946 and 1964 and was a consultant to business firms. At RAND, he is remembered for his work on the hidden costs of regulation. Alchian was the first economist to be employed at RAND and "became the conduit through which many Chicago stalwarts such as Ronald Coase, Gary Becker, and others received lucrative consultancies from RAND."{{cite book |last1=Nik-Khah |first1=Edward |editor1-last=Van Horn |editor1-first=Robert |editor2-last=Mirowski |editor2-first=Philip |editor3-last=Stapleford |editor3-first=Thomas A. |editor2-link=Philip Mirowski |title=Building Chicago Economics: New Perspectives on the History of America's Most Powerful Economics Program |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1139004077 |chapter=George Stigler, the Graduate School of Business, and the Pillars of the Chicago School|page=247}} Alchian was also involved for around 20 years with the Law and Economics Center, initially affiliated with the University of Rochester, which provided "insight into economic theory to legal scholars and judges." Timothy Muris opined that Alchian was "unexcelled in teaching economics to lawyers."

Alchian, an applied economist, has been described by Robert Higgs as a master of applied price theory. Alchian was a neoclassical economist,{{cite journal |last1=DiQuattro |first1=Arthur |title=The Market and Liberal Values |journal=Political Theory |date=May 1980 |volume=8 |issue=2 |page=188 |doi=10.1177/009059178000800204|jstor=190794|s2cid=148206353 |quote=Consider what two important neoclassicists tell students in their introductory text, Exchange and Production: Theory in Use. Alchian and Allen write...}}{{cite book |last1=Tieben |first1=Bert |title=The Concept of Equilibrium in Different Economic Traditions: A Historical Investigation |date=2009 |publisher=Rozenberg Publishers |isbn=978-9036101097 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=i6sPmMbzCuIC&dq=alchian+Neoclassical&pg=PA486 486] |quote=In the 1950s, this conclusion provoked a response from the defenders of the neoclassical theory of the firm like Alchian (1950) and Friedman (1953)...}} specifically of the Chicago School.{{cite book |last1=Mayhew |first1=Anne |title=Narrating the Rise of Big Business in the USA: How Economists Explain Standard Oil and Wal-Mart |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135973445 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=JMiTAgAAQBAJ&dq=alchian++chicago+school&pg=PA79 79] |quote=...Armen Alchian, a widely respected economic theorist associated with the Chicago School...}}{{cite book |last1=McCloskey |first1=Deirdre N. |authorlink1=Deirdre McCloskey |title=Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics |date=1994 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521436038 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aPB8ryyPxGAC&dq=alchian++chicago+school&pg=PA160 160] |quote=...that Chicago economists such as Ronald Coase and Armen Alchian...}} Along with Harold Demsetz, Alchian is considered to be the founder of the "UCLA tradition",{{cite web |title=Armen A. Alchian |url=http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=1639 |publisher=Independent Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107192839/http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=1639 |archive-date=7 January 2020}} alternatively known as the Los Angeles School.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=160}} Read explains: "Theirs is a school which shares some similarities with Chicago's emphasis on the free market, Harvard's tradition of institutional studies, and the strategic thrust of both the RAND Corporation and of the Hoover Institution, to which both contributed intellectually."{{sfn|Read|2015|p=160}}

Alchian was also influenced by the Austrian School,{{refn|{{cite book |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter J. |last2=Zywicki |first2=Todd J. |author1-link=Peter J. Boettke |author2-link= Todd Zywicki |editor1-last=Zywicki |editor1-first=Todd J. |editor2-last=Boettke |editor2-first=Peter J. |title=Research Handbook on Austrian Law and Economics |date=2017 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |location=Cheltenham, UK |isbn=978-1849801133 |page=23 |chapter=Law and economics: the contributions of the Austrian School of Economics |quote=The Austrian school of economics in its historical and contemporary embodiment, as well as the various thinkers that it influenced along the way, such as Alchian...}}{{cite book |last1=Bitetti |first1=Rosamaria |editor1-last=Horwitz |editor1-first=Steven |editor1-link=Steven Horwitz |title=Austrian Economics: The Next Generation |date=2019 |publisher=Emerald Publishing |isbn=978-1787565784 |page=147 |chapter=Principles of the Austrian Tradition in the Policy Cycle |quote=...thinkers and authors who are not officially Austrian economists, but rather fellow travelers from Austrian-friendly schools. Just to name a few [...] Alchian and Demsetz and property rights economics...}}{{cite book |last1=Hunt |first1=E.K. |last2=Lautzenheiser |first2=Mark |author1-link=E. K. Hunt |title=History of Economic Thought |date=2011 |publisher=M. E. Sharpe |location=Armonk, New York |page=478 |edition=3rd |quote=In a widely used textbook [University Economics] written from the Austrian and Chicago perspective, Armen Alchian and William Allen...}}{{cite book |last1=Ebeling |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Ebeling |title=Austrian Economics: Perspectives on the Past and Prospects for the Future |date=1991 |publisher=Hillsdale College Press |isbn=978-0916308834 |page=53 |quote=Indeed, the "property rights revolution" in economic theory, associated with, among others, Harold Demsetz and Arman Alchian, reveals a (sometimes) unconscious debt to Austrian insights.}}}} especially by the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.{{cite web |last1=Boettke |first1=Pete |authorlink1=Pete Boettke |title=Boettke on Mises |url=https://www.econtalk.org/boettke-on-mises/ |website=EconTalk |publisher=Liberty Fund |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228012411/http://www.econtalk.org/boettke-on-mises/ |archive-date=28 February 2019 |date=December 27, 2010 |quote=...Alchian got a lot of those arguments from Hayek and Mises.}}{{cite news |last1=O'Driscoll |first1=Jerry |title=There is no such thing as macroeconomics. |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/ThinkMarkets/2010/0909/There-is-no-such-thing-as-macroeconomics. |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=September 9, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610080053/http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/ThinkMarkets/2010/0909/There-is-no-such-thing-as-macroeconomics. |archive-date=10 June 2017 |quote=...the UCLA tradition as by Mises and Hayek. Mises and Hayek had an important influence on that tradition, however.}} He was influenced by Mises' Human Action (1949).{{cite web |last1=Manne |first1=Henry |author1-link=Henry Manne |title=Alchian's connections with Austrian economics |url=https://www.coordinationproblem.org/2011/01/economists-used-to-believe-this.html?cid=6a00d83451eb0069e20148c7c2a58f970c#comment-6a00d83451eb0069e20148c7c2a58f970c |website=coordinationproblem.org |publisher=Coordination Problem |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914143207/https://www.coordinationproblem.org/2011/01/economists-used-to-believe-this.html |archive-date=14 September 2021 |date=January 18, 2011 |quote=Armen Alchian's connections with Austrian economics, I also have some trivia. I first met Armen at a small conference in 1958 at which he presented a first draft of what became the seminal "Some Economics of Property Rights." He began his lecture with a lengthy quote from Mises' Human Action.}} Alchian famously interviewed Hayek in 1978,{{cite book |title=Nobel-Prize Winning Economist Interviews |date=1983 |publisher=Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles |pages=362–429 |chapter=Tape: Alchian (November 11, 1978)}}{{cite web |title=Armen A. Alchian interviews Friedrich A. Hayek (Part I) |url=http://hayek.ufm.edu/index.php?title=Armen_A._Alchian |website=The Hayek Interviews |publisher=Universidad Francisco Marroquín |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200110161410/http://hayek.ufm.edu/index.php?title=Armen_A._Alchian |archive-date=10 January 2020 |date=November 11, 1978 }}

• {{cite web |title=Armen A. Alchian interviews Friedrich A. Hayek (Part II) |url=http://hayek.ufm.edu/index.php?title=Armen_Alchian_%28Part_II%29 |website=The Hayek Interviews |publisher=Universidad Francisco Marroquín |date=November 11, 1978 |access-date=January 12, 2020 |archive-date=January 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200110161515/http://hayek.ufm.edu/index.php?title=Armen_Alchian_%2528Part_II%2529 |url-status=live }} during which Alchian told him that he was particularly influenced by two of his articles: "Economics and Knowledge" (1937) and "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945).{{cite book |last1=Ebenstein |first1=Alan |author1-link=Alan O. Ebenstein |title=Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek |date=2003 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=1403960380 |page=107}} In his turn, Alchian has influenced contemporary Austrian School economists.{{cite book |last1=Ardalan |first1=Kavous |title=Case Method and Pluralist Economics: Philosophy, Methodology and Practice |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3319720708 |page=189 |quote=Contemporary Austrian school economists reflect a more diverse mix of intellectual traditions in economic science as they have been influenced by modern figures in economics, such as Armen Alchian...}}

Alchian, along with James M. Buchanan and Ronald Coase, served as a bridge between the "Old" and "New" Chicago School. Boettke and Candela argue that these three economists founded the following branches in economics: New Institutional Economics, Law and Economics, and the economics of property rights. Indeed, Alchian is widely considered one of the founders of the New Institutional Economics.{{efn|"Alchian not only remained a giant at the University of California Los Angeles. He was also viewed as a pioneer and co-founder of the New Institutional Economics revival, of which UCLA was at the center."{{sfn|Read|2015|p=166}} }} According to Robert Higgs Alchian had the greatest influence, aside from Coase, "in creating and fostering what has come to be known as the New Institutional Economics, one of the most notable improvements in mainstream economics during the past half century."

A large portion of Alchian's contribution is in property rights.{{cite web |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen A. |title=Property Rights |url=https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PropertyRights.html |website=Library of Economics and Liberty |publisher=Liberty Fund |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114021010/https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PropertyRights.html |archive-date=14 November 2019|quote=About the Author: Most of his major scientific contributions are in the economics of property rights.}}{{efn|"He devoted much of his career to studying property rights."}}{{cite journal |last1=Foss |first1=Nicolai J. |authorlink1=Nicolai J. Foss |title=Economics, Institutions and Ludwig Von Mises |journal=Cultural Dynamics |date=1997 |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=83 |quote=Menger and Bohm-Bawerk are among the few economists to discuss property rights before Coase, Alchian and Demsetz in the 1960s laid the foundation for the property rights approach.|doi=10.1177/092137409700900105 |s2cid=143218062 }} Henderson argued that Alchian has been most impactful on the economic analysis of property rights and summarized his work on it as follows: "You tell me the rules and I'll tell you what outcomes to expect." Alchian opined that "In essence, economics is the study of property rights over resources."{{cite journal |last1=Pejovich |first1=Svetozar |title=Comment on Paper by Alchian and Demsetz |journal=The Journal of Economic History |date=1973 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=41–42 |jstor=2117140 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700076427 |s2cid=155012746 }} Peter Boettke noted in 2015 that Alchian is "recognized as the founder of what was called 'property rights economics' in which he had to re-introduce to the economics profession the important role that property rights play in the determination of economic performance."

While working at RAND in 1954, Alchian conducted the first event study to infer what kind of fuel material was used in the development of hydrogen bombs, the construction of which were secret at the time. He successfully identified lithium as the fusion fuel through publicly available financial data, finding only the stock of Lithium Corporation of America suddenly increased around the hydrogen bomb test Castle Bravo. However, the paper was confiscated and destroyed because it was seen as a threat to national security.{{Cite journal|last=Newhard|first=Joseph Michael|date=2014-08-01|title=The stock market speaks: How Dr. Alchian learned to build the bomb|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119914000546|journal=Journal of Corporate Finance|language=en|volume=27|pages=116–132|doi=10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2014.05.002|issn=0929-1199|access-date=2021-05-06|archive-date=2020-11-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108122815/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119914000546|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}

{{see also|Alchian–Allen effect}}

Alchian was not prolific and did not author many books and articles. However, his few published works are widely cited. His writing style is characterized with lack of mathematical formality and is known for its straightforward prose. Harold Demsetz noted that his works are "largely uncluttered with mathematics." Henderson praised his clear writing, noting that Alchian was "one of the last economists of his generation to communicate mainly in words and not equations." According to Susan L. Woodward he "had no use for formal models that did not teach us to look somewhere new in the known world, nor had he any patience for findings that relied on fancy econometrics."

In 1964 Alchian and William R. Allen co-authored University Economics, an influential general textbook that has undergone six editions under two titles. It appeared in 1969 under the name Exchange and Production, and was published a third time in 2018 as Universal Economics.{{Cite web |title=Universal Economics |url=https://about.libertyfund.org/books/universal-economics/ |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=Liberty Fund |language=en-US |archive-date=2024-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240812090248/https://about.libertyfund.org/books/universal-economics/ |url-status=live }} Mark Blaug described it as standing out "among all of its rivals by a consistent emphasis on the actual or potential role of markets as a device for organising economic life."

The collection of his works was first published in 1977 by Liberty Fund under the title Economic Forces at Work, which contains his main 18 papers. In 2006 Liberty Fund published The Collected Works of Armen A. Alchian in two volumes.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=166}}

His most significant articles are:

• "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory" (1950):{{cite journal |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen A. |title=Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory |journal=Journal of Political Economy |date=June 1950 |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=211–221 |jstor=1827159|title-link=Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory |doi=10.1086/256940 |s2cid=36045710 }} It is Alchian's first major paper that brought him attention. Called one of the "most important contributions to the economic literature," the article "pioneered the idea that the price system is a Darwinian mechanism in which efficient behaviors survive, regardless of the motives of economic agents." According to Karl Brunner, Alchian "demonstrates that even in the absence of rational, profit maximizing or any purposive behavior the economic system produces a rational ordering of resource use patterns." James M. Buchanan described it as a "seminal" paper, which has a "genuinely innovative quality."{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|p=416}}
• "Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production" (1963){{cite journal |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen |title=Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production |journal=Econometrica |date=October 1963 |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=679–693 |doi=10.2307/1909166 |jstor=1909166 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1909166 |access-date=2022-09-16 |archive-date=2022-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920174441/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1909166 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} was completed for the RAND Corporation by 1949, but was not published until 14 years later because it relied on military classified data. A pioneering work,{{cite book |last1=Mishina |first1=Kazuhiro |editor1-last=Lamoreaux |editor1-first=Naomi R. |editor2-last=Raff |editor2-first=Daniel M. G. |editor3-last=Temin |editor3-first=Peter |title=Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries |date=1999 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=145 |url=https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c10232/c10232.pdf |chapter=Learning by New Experiences: Revisiting the Flying Fortress Learning Curve |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127214503/https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c10232/c10232.pdf |archive-date=27 November 2021 |url-status=dead}} Linda Argote and Dennis Epple noted that it stimulated interest in organizational learning curve,{{cite journal |last1=Argote |first1=Linda |last2=Epple |first2=Dennis |author1-link=Linda Argote |author2-link=Dennis Epple |title=Learning Curves in Manufacturing |journal=Science |date=1990 |volume=247 |issue=4945 |pages=920–924 |doi=10.1126/science.247.4945.920 |pmid=17776451 |bibcode=1990Sci...247..920A |s2cid=21055499 |url=https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.247.4945.920 |access-date=2022-09-16 |archive-date=2022-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922014134/https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.247.4945.920 |url-status=live }} while Hubbard stated that it is "credited as the first empirical investigation of learning curves – an important feature of many industries."
• "Information Costs, Pricing and Resource Unemployment" (1969):{{cite journal |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen A. |title=Information Costs, Pricing, and Resource Unemployment |journal=Western Economic Journal |date=June 1969 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=109–128 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/853377889a22d6ca1ea2e90ae513b242/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1821025 |access-date=2022-07-23 |archive-date=2022-01-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128225736/https://www.proquest.com/openview/853377889a22d6ca1ea2e90ae513b242/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1821025 |url-status=live }} Mark Blaug argued that it was the "beginning of all later 'job search' theories of unemployment." Alchian considered it his best paper.
• "Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization" (1972)։{{cite journal |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen A. |last2=Demsetz |first2=Harold |authorlink2=Harold Demsetz |title=Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization |journal=The American Economic Review |date=December 1972 |volume=62 |issue=5 |pages=777–795 |jstor=1815199 }} Alchian's most cited paper, it is "credited with introducing the modern theory of the firm, the article looked at how problems associated with team production, such as shirking while leaving others to do the work, affect the organizational arrangements used by firms." It "has become the basis for much of current organization theory, which now concentrates on the issues of team production and incentives that they emphasized." Thomas N. Hubbard argues that it "may be the most influential paper in the economics of organization, catalyzing the development of the field as we know it."
  In 2011 it was chosen as one of the top 20 articles published in the American Economic Review between 1911 and 2011.{{Citation|last1=Arrow|first1=Kenneth J.|last2=Bernheim|first2=B. Douglas|last3=Feldstein|first3=Martin S.|last4=McFadden|first4=Daniel L.|last5=Poterba|first5=James M.|last6=Solow|first6=Robert M.|author1-link=Kenneth Arrow|author2-link=Douglas Bernheim|author3-link=Martin Feldstein|author4-link=Daniel McFadden|author5-link=James M. Poterba|author6-link=Robert Solow|title=100 Years of the American Economic Review: The Top 20 Articles|journal=The American Economic Review|volume=101|issue=1|pages=1–8|date=February 2011|jstor=41038778|doi=10.1257/aer.101.1.1|doi-access=free|hdl=1721.1/114169|hdl-access=free}} In fact, it is the most cited of all papers published in the 100 years of existence of the American Economic Review{{cite book |last1=Torgler |first1=Benno |last2=Piatti |first2=Marco |title=A Century of American Economic Review: Insights on Critical Factors in Journal Publishing |date=2013 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1349462049 |page=23 |chapter=Top Institutions, Top Papers and Leading Economists Publishing in AER|doi=10.1057/9781137333056_2}} and the 12th most cited economic paper overall between 1970 and mid-2006.{{cite journal |last1=Kim |first1=E. Han |last2=Morse |first2=Adair |last3=Zingales |first3=Luigi |title=What Has Mattered to Economics since 1970 |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |date=2006 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=189–202 |jstor=30033690 |doi=10.1257/jep.20.4.189 |doi-access=free |hdl=2027.42/48735 |hdl-access=free }}

Alchian has been described as a classical liberal{{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Joshua C. |last2=Lawson |first2=Robert A. |title=Economic Freedom Of The World: An Accounting Of The Literature |journal=Contemporary Economic Policy |date=January 2014 |volume=32 |issue=1 |page=2 |quote=...classical-liberal scholars including Armen Alchian, Peter Bauer, Gary Becker...|doi=10.1111/coep.12010 |s2cid=154941466 }}

• {{cite web |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter |authorlink1=Peter Boettke |title=Pivotal People at Pivotal Times: John Blundell |url=https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/thinkpieces/pivotal-people-at-pivotal-times-john-blundell |publisher=Adam Smith Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202100349/https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/thinkpieces/pivotal-people-at-pivotal-times-john-blundell |archive-date=2 December 2018 |date=9 June 2015 |quote=The international movement for classical liberalism... [...] ...to advance the ideas of liberty – the intellectual heritage of [...] of Alchian ...}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Ashford |editor1-first=Nigel |editor2-last=Davies |editor2-first=Stephen |editor1-link=Nigel Ashford |title=A Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1136708336 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tczx_Gus1rcC&dq=alchian+libertarian&pg=PA280 280] |chapter=Conservatives and classical liberals cited in the text}} and libertarian.{{cite book |last1=Chickering |first1=A. Lawrence |authorlink1=Lawrence Chickering |title=Beyond Left and Right: Breaking the Political Stalemate |date=1993 |publisher=Institute for Contemporary Studies |isbn=978-1558152090 |page=[https://archive.org/details/beyondleftrightb00chic/page/33 33] |quote=...the libertarian economist Armen Alchian... |url=https://archive.org/details/beyondleftrightb00chic/page/33 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=King |first1=J. E. |title=F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy |journal=History of Economics Review |date=2021 |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=75–77 |doi=10.1080/10370196.2021.1883367 |s2cid=236344818 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10370196.2021.1883367 |quote=...his influence on such contemporary libertarian thinkers as Armen Alchian, James Buchanan and Ronald Coase... |access-date=2021-09-01 |archive-date=2021-08-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831165438/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10370196.2021.1883367 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}{{efn|Anthony J. Culyer: "Politically, he was a libertarian."}} He advocated laissez-faire principles and free-market individualism.{{cite book |last1=Hodgson |first1=Geoffrey M. |authorlink1=Geoffrey Hodgson |title=Evolution and Institutions: On Evolutionary Economics and the Evolution of Economics |date=1999 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |page=162 |quote=...the kind of Panglossian and laissez-faire conclusions that Alchian and Friedman had proposed.}}{{cite book |last1=Meister |first1=Robert |title=After Evil: A Politics of Human Rights |date=2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231150378 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cUZ5SpAnXFsC&dq=Alchian+free+market&pg=PA236 236] |quote=...Alchian's free market individualism...}}
• {{cite book |last1=Machan |first1=Tibor R. |authorlink1=Tibor Machan |title=Human Rights and Human Liberties: A Radical Reconsideration of the American Political Tradition |date=1975 |publisher=Nelson-Hall Publishers |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0882291598 |page=[https://archive.org/details/humanrightshuman0000mach/page/258 258] |quote=To name just a few who are now engaged in research and analysis pointing to a free market approach to the problems facing us, the ranks include Milton Friedman, Yale Brozen, Harold Demsetz, Armen Alchian... |url=https://archive.org/details/humanrightshuman0000mach/page/258 }}
• {{cite news |last1=Poole |first1=Robert |title=Spotlight: Henry G. Manne |url=https://reason.com/1976/05/01/spotlight-8/ |work=Reason |date=May 1976 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210906112532/https://reason.com/1976/05/01/spotlight-8/ |archive-date=6 September 2021 |quote=Bringing in such distinguished free-market economists as UCLA's Armen Alchian...}} He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.{{cite web |title=Mont Pelerin Society |url=https://www.desmogblog.com/mont-pelerin-society |publisher=DeSmogBlog |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109145632/https://www.desmogblog.com/mont-pelerin-society |archive-date=9 January 2020 |quote=Armen A. Alchian (1914-2013) 1957}} Axel Leijonhufvud argued that Alchian was skeptical of people who claim they will improve the world by using the powers of the government, but also those calling for abolishing government.{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|p=420}}

Alchian listed "self-reliance, independence, responsibility, integrity and trust" as the principles and rules of capitalism and argued that these are antithetical to socialism/communism. Alchian believed Keynesianism "totally neglects incentives."Individual and Business Tax Reduction Proposals. Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Taxation and Debt Management Generally of the Committee on Finance. United States Senate. Ninety-Fifth Congress, Second Session. July 14, 1978. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1978. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=giMNcw4YRZwC&dq=Armen+Alchian&pg=PA83-IA6 83] Alchian was a friend of Milton Friedman{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Milton |authorlink1=Milton Friedman |title=Why Government Is the Problem |date=1993 |publisher=Hoover Press |isbn=978-0817954437 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=s8qEzpj4rrMC&dq=friedman+alchian+friend&pg=PA8 8] |quote=My old friend Armen Alchian...}} and Friedman often quoted him: "The one thing you can be most sure of in this life is that everyone will spend someone else's money more liberally than they will spend their own."{{cite news |last1=Brunie |first1=Charles H. |title=My Friend, Milton Friedman |url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/my-friend-milton-friedman-10239.html |work=City Journal |date=April 11, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108193351/https://www.city-journal.org/html/my-friend-milton-friedman-10239.html |archive-date=8 January 2020}}

In the 1960s, Alchian told Eastern Bloc economists that they had to "introduce more private property rights to make markets work the way you think they should work" or else the market allocation will seem to be "perverse or deficient."{{cite journal |last1=Schroeder |first1=Gertrude E. |title=Property rights issues in economic reforms in socialist countries |journal=Studies in Comparative Communism |date=Summer 1988 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=175–188 |doi=10.1016/0039-3592(88)90012-9 }} David Riesman noted that Alchian, like Friedman and Hayek, was "confident about the causal relationships that run from evolution to capitalism, from capitalism to meliorism."{{cite book |last1=Riesman |first1=David |author1-link=David Riesman |title=Conservative Capitalism: The Social Economy |date=1999 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0333982785|page=149}} One left-wing commentator described Alchian as an "ultra-liberal" economist who vigorously defended the idea that capitalism is characterised by the absence of any substantial power relations between individuals.{{cite journal |last1=Palermo |first1=Giulio |s2cid=54869425 |title=Misconceptions of power: From Alchian and Demsetz to Bowles and Gintis |journal=Capital & Class |date=2007 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=147–185 |doi=10.1177/030981680709200107 |publisher=Conference of Socialist Economists|hdl=11379/35559 |hdl-access=free }} Alchian was apparently influenced by neo-Darwinism.{{cite book |last1=England |first1=Richard W. |title=Evolutionary Concepts in Contemporary Economics |date=1994 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0472104833 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QDACUmOO8SsC&dq=influenced+alchian&pg=PA11-IA9 11]}} He, like Friedman, "invoked Darwinism to prove that the market economy is natural."{{cite journal |last1=Watkins |first1=John P. |title=Towards a Reconsideration of Social Evolution: Symbiosis and Its Implications for Economics |journal=Journal of Economic Issues |date=1998 |volume=32 |issue=1 |page=91 |doi=10.1080/00213624.1998.11506013 |jstor=4227280 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4227280 |access-date=2022-03-13 |archive-date=2022-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221145606/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4227280 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Alchian was critical of minimum wage laws.{{cite web |last1=Young |first1=Ryan |title=What Do Economists Think about the Minimum Wage? |url=https://cei.org/blog/what-do-economists-think-about-the-minimum-wage/ |website=cei.org |publisher=Competitive Enterprise Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217232142/https://cei.org/blog/what-do-economists-think-about-the-minimum-wage/ |archive-date=17 February 2022 |date=March 5, 2019}}{{cite journal |last1=Henderson |first1=David R. |author1-link=David R. Henderson |title=Up From Poverty |journal=Regulation |date=Summer 2012 |page=68 |url=https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2012/8/v35n2-8.pdf#page=4 |publisher=Cato Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918155804/https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2012/8/v35n2-8.pdf#page=4 |archive-date=2021-09-18 |quote=...Armen Alchian ... recommended that he read studies ... about how minimum wage laws dried up job opportunities for unskilled workers.}} During the 1970s energy crisis, Alchian argued for lifting of gas price controls.{{cite news |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen A. |title=Lift price controls, gas shortage would end |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhdUAAAAIBAJ&dq=Armen+alchian&pg=PA18&article_id=6766,3076302 |work=Boca Raton News |date=17 June 1979 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231028193019/https://books.google.am/books?id=NhdUAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA18&dq=Armen+alchian&article_id=6766,3076302&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwid_uvM_q6AAxXtS_EDHeoJA4UQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=Armen%20alchian&f=false |archive-date=28 October 2023}}

Alchian famously asserted that "95% of the material in economics journals was wrong or irrelevant".{{cite journal |last1=Hanke |first1=Steve H. |author1-link=Steve H. Hanke |title=Remembrances of a. Currency Reformer: Some Notes and Sketches from the Field |journal=Studies in Applied Economics |date=June 2016 |issue=55 |page=2 |url=https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/articles/remembrances_of_a_currency_reformer.pdf |publisher=Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202181257/https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/articles/remembrances_of_a_currency_reformer.pdf |archive-date=2022-02-02 }}

Alchian resided in Mar Vista, Los Angeles. In 1940 he married Pauline (née Crouse, 1916–2017),{{cite web |title=Obituaries |url=https://stanfordmag.org/contents/obituaries-september-2017 |website=stanfordmag.org |publisher=STANFORD magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810030938/https://stanfordmag.org/contents/obituaries-september-2017 |archive-date=10 August 2021 |date=September 2017}} an elementary school teacher, who he had met at Stanford.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=170}} They had two children: Arline Ann Hoel (b. 1943)"California Birth Index, 1905–1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2WF-ZDW {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221145757/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2WF-ZDW |date=2022-12-21 }} : 27 November 2014), Arline Ann Alchian, 26 Apr 1943; citing Fresno, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento. and Allen Alexander Alchian (b. 1947)."California Birth Index, 1905–1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V27G-N4Q {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221145807/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V27G-N4Q |date=2022-12-21 }} : 27 November 2014), Allen Alexander Alchian, 27 Mar 1947; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.{{sfn|Read|2015|p=170}}

Alchian was an "avid computer user" and an early adopter of email.{{cite web |last1=Levine |first1=David K. |authorlink1=David K. Levine |title=Armen A. Alchian |url=http://www.dklevine.com/General/ALCHIAN.HTM |website=dklevine.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108192918/http://www.dklevine.com/General/ALCHIAN.HTM |archive-date=8 January 2020}}

William R. Allen described Alchian as "almost always soft-spoken, unaggressive, and seemingly bemused" and noted that he "eschewed ambitious self-promotion and personal empire-building." Daniel Benjamin described him as "fundamentally kind, shy, compassionate, and humble." William F. Sharpe wrote that Alchian was "personally gentle and traditional," but was "clearly an eccentric economic theorist."{{sfn|Read|2015|p=141}} Deirdre McCloskey described Alchian as "the soul of courtesy." She wrote that "talking about economics with Armen Alchian is like talking about painting with Pablo Picasso" and that his economics "comes from experience of life."{{cite journal |last1=McCloskey |first1=Deirdre N. |authorlink1=Deirdre McCloskey |title=Economic Tourism |journal=Eastern Economic Journal |date=1996 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=365–368 |jstor=40325725 }} Tom G. Palmer wrote of Alchian as a "sober scholar, but not so charismatic."{{cite web |last1=Palmer |first1=Tom G. |authorlink1=Tom G. Palmer |title=Oddballs vs. Scholars, For Negative Liberty, Against the Welfare State |url=https://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/03/25/tom-g-palmer/oddballs-vs-scholars-negative-liberty-against-welfare-state |website=cato-unbound.org |publisher=Cato Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504162149/https://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/03/25/tom-g-palmer/oddballs-vs-scholars-negative-liberty-against-welfare-state |archive-date=4 May 2017 |date=March 25, 2007}} Susan L. Woodward described him as a "warm and sentimental person." Roger Farmer described him as "selfless" and "amazing human being" who cared "only about promoting ideas."{{cite web |last1=Farmer |first1=Roger E. A. |author1-link=Roger Farmer |title=When I came to UCLA in 1987, Armen was winding down in terms of research output |url=https://twitter.com/farmerrf/status/1717669669354586273 |publisher=Twitter |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231027211520/https://twitter.com/farmerrf/status/1717669669354586273 |archive-date=27 October 2023 |date=27 October 2023}} Steven N.S. Cheung wrote that he "never engaged in self-promotion, and he never cared about journal rankings" and was a "modest gentleman".{{sfn|Maloney|2017|pp=565-566}} He quoted Coase: "Alchian is classical in manners as well as in thought."{{sfn|Maloney|2017|p=566}}

Alchian was a lifelong golfer{{sfn|Read|2015|p=170}} and a regular visitor to the Rancho Park Golf Course. He often played golf with fellow economist George Stigler. He greatly admired the sport and wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in 1977, in which he argued that golf is "not merely a sport. It is an activity, a lifestyle, a behavior, a manifestation of the essential human spirit. Golf's ethic, principles, rules and procedures of play are totally capitalistic. They are antithetical to socialism. Golf requires self-reliance, independence, responsibility, integrity and trust."{{cite news |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen A. |title=Of Golf, Capitalism and Socialism |url=https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/flgre/article/1983spr28.pdf |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=July 13, 1977 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111181401/https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/flgre/article/1983spr28.pdf |archive-date=11 January 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Calcagno |first1=Peter T. |last2=Whitson |first2=Whitney |title=Of Golf, Capitalism, and Socialism: An Empirical Analysis |journal=Atlantic Economic Journal |date=June 2011 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=199–200 |doi=10.1007/s11293-011-9267-1 |s2cid=154796026 }} He preferred to stay home and play golf than to partake in a conference called by President Gerald Ford to "Whip Inflation Now" as it would be "more productive than anything likely to be said in Washington."

One of his last public appearances was in May 2006 at an international conference at the UCLA, organized by Richard G. Hovannisian, on the challenges of sustainable development in Armenia, which was dedicated to Alchian.{{cite web |title=Armenia: Challenges Of Sustainable Development |url=https://international.ucla.edu/institute/event/4587 |website=international.ucla.edu |publisher=UCLA International Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731134059/https://international.ucla.edu/institute/event/4587 |archive-date=31 July 2022 |date=May 6, 2006}}{{cite web |title=Conference on Armenia's economic development in the University of California, Los Angeles |url=https://www.azad-hye.com/articles/conference-on-armenias-economic-development-in-the-university-of-california-los-angeles/ |website=azad-hye.com |publisher=Azad-Hye Armenian Portal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924210749/https://www.azad-hye.com/articles/conference-on-armenias-economic-development-in-the-university-of-california-los-angeles/ |archive-date=24 September 2021 |date=June 8, 2006}} Around six years before his death Alchian's memory deteriorated according to Yoram Barzel.{{sfn|Maloney|2017|p=564}} He suffered from a neurodegenerative disease in the last six years of his life.{{sfn|Maloney|2017|p=564}} Alchian died of natural causes, in his sleep, at his home in Los Angeles on February 19, 2013, at the age of 98.

{{quote box

| width = 30%

| align = right

| quote = "[Armen Alchian], more than anyone else (and I would include Ronald Coase), made property rights, contracts and business practices in general into the field of study that they have now become."

| source =  —Axel Leijonhufvud{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|pp=418-419}} }}

In 1985 Mark Blaug listed Alchian as one of the "Great Economists Since Keynes". In a 2011 survey of around 300 economics professors in the U.S., Alchian ranked 17th among favorite living economists older than 60. He received the same points as Robert Fogel and Gordon Tullock.{{cite journal|last1=Davis|first1=William L.|last2=Figgins|first2=Bob|last3=Hedengren|first3=David|last4=Klein|first4=Daniel B.|author4-link=Daniel B. Klein|title=Economics Professors' Favorite Economic Thinkers, Journals, and Blogs (along with Party and Policy Views)|journal=Econ Journal Watch|date=May 2011|volume=8|issue=2|page=137|url=https://econjwatch.org/articles/economics-professors-favorite-economic-thinkers-journals-and-blogs-along-with-party-and-policy-views|access-date=2020-01-12|archive-date=2021-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116075706/https://econjwatch.org/articles/economics-professors-favorite-economic-thinkers-journals-and-blogs-along-with-party-and-policy-views|url-status=live}}{{efn|Alchian ranked fourth, behind Gordon Tullock, George Stigler, and Ludwig von Mises in a 2011 survey asking economists the following question: "One might think of a character-type of economist that is well represented by the following five economists: Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, and James Buchanan. For that character type, which five additional economists would you include in a top-ten list of representatives of that character type?"{{cite journal |last1=Klein |first1=Daniel B. |authorlink1=Daniel B. Klein |title=Desperately Seeking Smithians: Responses to the Questionnaire about Building an Identity |journal=Econ Journal Watch |date=January 2009 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=113–114 |url=https://econjwatch.org/articles/desperately-seeking-smithians-responses-to-the-questionnaire-about-building-an-identity |access-date=2020-01-12 |archive-date=2020-02-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212014008/https://econjwatch.org/articles/desperately-seeking-smithians-responses-to-the-questionnaire-about-building-an-identity |url-status=live }}}} In 1984 Friedrich Hayek named Alchian and George Stigler his favorite economists "among the not really young ones." William R. Allen described him as "one of the superb economic analysts and teachers of the second half of the twentieth century." Walter E. Williams and Donald J. Boudreaux describe him as one of the top economists of the twentieth century and probably the greatest microeconomic theorist.{{efn|Williams: "Professor Alchian is among the top 20th-century contributors to economic knowledge." "Professor Alchian was probably the greatest microeconomic theorist of the 20th century..."{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Walter E. |authorlink1=Walter E. Williams |title=WILLIAMS: Finally, some real economics |url=https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/williams-finally-some-real-economics |newspaper=Toronto Sun |date=October 11, 2018}}

Boudreaux: "The world has lost two of the past century's greatest economists in as many months: Armen Alchian died this morning. [...] More later on this great economist – a scholar who, I believe, probably is history's greatest pure microeconomic theorist."{{cite web |last1=Boudreaux |first1=Don |authorlink1=Donald J. Boudreaux |title=Armen A. Alchian (1914-2013) |url=https://cafehayek.com/2013/02/armen-a-alchian-1914-2013.html |website=Cafe Hayek |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108123348/https://cafehayek.com/2013/02/armen-a-alchian-1914-2013.html |archive-date=8 January 2020 |date=February 19, 2013}} }}

Alchian never received a Nobel Prize, but numerous economists, such as Hayek, Harry Markowitz,{{efn|"...One Google response was someone saying that Armen should get a Nobel Prize. I concur."{{cite web |last1=Glasner |first1=David |author1-link=David Glasner |title=Armen Alchian, The Economists' Economist |url=https://uneasymoney.com/2013/02/25/armen-alchian-the-economists-economist/ |website=uneasymoney.com |publisher=Uneasy Money |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918174557/https://uneasymoney.com/2013/02/25/armen-alchian-the-economists-economist/ |archive-date=18 September 2021 |date=February 25, 2013}}}} Michael Intriligator,{{efn|Intriligator, who has known Alchian since 1962, said his colleague "would be a very good candidate for the Nobel Prize in economics."}} William R. Allen, David R. Henderson,{{cite news |last1=Henderson |first1=David R. |author1-link=David R. Henderson |title=Nobel Econometricians |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB106566297598787000 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=October 9, 2003 |quote=Three main candidates come to mind: Armen Alchian... |access-date=September 8, 2021 |archive-date=December 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221155737/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB106566297598787000 |url-status=live }}

• {{cite news |last1=Henderson |first1=David R. |author1-link=David R. Henderson |title=Laureate Phelps |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116062269421990250 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=October 12, 2006 |quote=Grant the award to Armen Alchian (age 92), Gordon Tullock (84) or Arnold Harberger (82). |access-date=September 8, 2021 |archive-date=June 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617164130/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116062269421990250 |url-status=live }} Donald J. Boudreaux,{{cite news |last1=Schneiderman |first1=R.M. |title=Reactions to the Nobel in Economic Science |url=https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/reactions-to-the-nobel-prize-in-economics/ |work=economix.blogs.nytimes.com |agency=The New York Times |date=October 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829230045/https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/reactions-to-the-nobel-prize-in-economics/ |archive-date=29 August 2021 }}

believe he deserved one.{{efn|"Many of Alchian's students and friends believed that he well deserved a Nobel Prize in economics, but this recognition never came to him."

• "At the end of the day, was the denial of Nobel status to Armen Alchian unjust? Yes, to many of us at least."{{cite journal |last1=McChesney |first1=Fred S. |s2cid=185331687 |title=Magnus Magister: An Affectionate Appreciation of Armen Alchian |journal=Journal of Law, Economics & Policy |date=2014 |volume=10 |issue=3 |page=597}}}} Hayek told Henderson in 1975: "There are two economists who deserve the Nobel prize because their work is important but won't get it because they didn't do a lot of work: Ronald Coase and Armen Alchian."{{efn|Coase did receive a Nobel Prize, in 1991.}} Allen nominated Alchian for the Nobel Prize in 1986 and characterized him as "a giant who, because of his lack of pretension, is easily overlooked by laymen and even by some supposed professionals—who has greatly honored his profession and uniquely contributed to its usefulness." Axel Leijonhufvud, who was a student and colleague of Alchian for thirty years,{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|p=418}} suggested in 1996 that "his lack of self-promotion and his abstentiousness from it I think is what more than anything else has kept him from the Nobel prize so far. I can find no other explanation of the behavior of my countrymen."{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|p=420}}

A number of economists have been influenced by Alchian, including several Nobel laurates. Kenneth Arrow was "personally and intellectually closely linked" with Alchian and the latter's influence played a crucial role on Arrow's introduction of the concept of "learning curve" into an economic growth model.{{cite journal |last1=Ballandonne |first1=Matthieu |title=Creating Increasing Returns: The Genesis of Arrow's "Learning by Doing" Article |journal=History of Political Economy |date=2015 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=449–479 |doi=10.1215/00182702-3153140}} James M. Buchanan was inspired by Alchian's work on free tuition.{{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Joshua C. |title=Academia in Anarchy: 50 years on |journal=Public Choice |date=2020 |volume=183 |issue=3–4 |page=407 |doi=10.1007/s11127-020-00793-7|s2cid=216398194 }} William F. Sharpe, who took a graduate course taught by Alchian in 1956, named him one of his three mentors, whose approach to research he had attempted to emulate.{{cite book |last1=Lott Jr. |first1=John R. |authorlink1=John R. Lott |editor1-last=Lott Jr. |editor1-first=John R. |title=Uncertainty and Economic Evolution: Essays in Honour of Armen Alchian |date=1997 |publisher=Routledge |page=187 |chapter=In celebration of Armen Alchian's eightieth birthday.}} Sharpe called him a "brilliant mind grappling (usually very successfully) with the most difficult concepts in economics in thoroughly creative and innovative ways." Elinor Ostrom, an undergraduate student of Alchian, noted that as an institutional theorist, she "really appreciate[s] Alchian's approach" in the 1950 article "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory".{{cite book |last1=Ostrom |first1=Elinor |authorlink1=Elinor Ostrom |chapter=Lecture I. Frameworks Lecture II. Analyzing One-Hundred Year-Old Irrigation Puzzles |date=February 2011 |page=116 |chapter-url=https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/o/Ostrom_11.pdf |title=The Tanner Lectures on Human Values |publisher=Stanford University |title-link=The Tanner Lectures on Human Values |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723203653/https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/o/Ostrom_11.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2020}} Walter E. Williams called him one of his "tenacious mentors." William R. Allen named Alchian one of the two individuals who had had the greatest influence on his life, calling him "an older brother."{{cite news |author=Lott, John |title=Spotlight: Economics Educator |url=https://reason.com/1978/12/01/economics-educator/ |work=Reason |date=December 1978 |author-link=John R. Lott |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819091410/https://reason.com/1978/12/01/economics-educator/ |archive-date=19 August 2022}} John Lott stated that University Economics was responsible for him becoming an academic and going to UCLA.{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|p=412}}

Other noted economists who were students of or were influenced by Alchian include Harold Demsetz,{{cite journal |last1=Demsetz |first1=Harold |authorlink1=Harold Demsetz |title=An Appreciation of Armen A. Alchian's Contribution to the Theory of the Firm |journal=Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft |volume=143 |issue=1 |date=March 1987 |pages=3–6 |jstor=40750949 }} Steve Hanke,{{cite news |last1=Hanke |first1=Steve |authorlink1=Steve Hanke |title=Letter to the WSJ: Armen Alchian's Wise Economics |url=https://www.cato.org/blog/letter-wsj-armen-alchians-wise-economics |work=The Wall Street Journal |agency=Cato Institute |date=March 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108195344/https://www.cato.org/blog/letter-wsj-armen-alchians-wise-economics |archive-date=8 January 2020}} Henry Manne,{{cite web |title=Henry G. Manne, '52, 1928–2015 |url=https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/henry-g-manne-52-1928-2015 |website=law.uchicago.edu |publisher=University of Chicago Law School |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108182152/https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/henry-g-manne-52-1928-2015 |archive-date=8 January 2020|quote=His intellectual heroes and intellectual peers were classical liberal economists like Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig Mises, Armen Alchian and Harold Demsetz...}} Yoram Barzel,{{cite journal |last1=Lueck |first1=Dean |title= Yoram Barzel and the Economics of Institutions|journal= Man and the Economy|year=2019 |volume= 5|issue=2 |page= |doi=10.1515/me-2018-0011 |quote=More generally Barzel has been heavily influenced by Armen Alchian and a great admirer of him.|ssrn=744224 |s2cid=158284820 }} David Prychitko,{{cite web |last1=Prychitko |first1=David L. |authorlink1=David Prychitko |title=That's Interesting, But Does It Pass The Alchian Test? |url=https://www.coordinationproblem.org/2010/11/thats-nice-but-does-it-pass-the-alchian-test.html |website=coordinationproblem.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150914175747/http://www.coordinationproblem.org/2010/11/thats-nice-but-does-it-pass-the-alchian-test.html |archive-date=14 September 2015 |date=November 21, 2010|quote=I was raised on Alchian & Allen, having learned most of my economics from two of Alchian's students from the 1960s, Phil May and Howard Swaine. Alchian ranks, with Mises and Hayek, among my favorite and, I believe, most insightful, economists.}} Anthony J. Culyer,{{efn|"Two people more than any have shaped my thinking in economics. One was Armen Alchian and the other Alan Williams."}} Karl Brunner,{{efn|"Alchian interviewed me for a possible appointment at UCLA. This was the beginning of a long friendship and a very productive intellectual exchange. This exchange shaped my thinking over the decades."}} Arthur De Vany,{{cite journal |last1=De Vany |first1=Arthur |author1-link=Arthur De Vany |title=Information, chance, and evolution: Alchian and the economics of self-organization |journal=Economic Inquiry |date=1996 |volume=34 |issue=3 |page=428 |doi=10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01387.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01387.x |quote=Alchian's teaching shaped my understanding of economics. |access-date=2021-08-30 |archive-date=2022-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221155738/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01387.x |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Jerry Jordan,{{cite journal |last1=Jordan |first1=Jerry L. |author1-link=Jerry Jordan |title=Hayek in His Own Words |journal=The Journal of Private Enterprise |date=2017 |volume=32 |issue=1 |page=2 |url=https://ideas.repec.org/a/jpe/journl/1353.html |quote=In a conversation with one of my teachers, Armen Alchian... |access-date=2021-08-30 |archive-date=2022-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221155753/https://ideas.repec.org/a/jpe/journl/1353.html |url-status=live }} Douglas W. Allen,{{cite web |last1=Klein |first1=Peter G. |author1-link=Peter G. Klein |title=Doug Allen on Alchian |url=https://organizationsandmarkets.com/2013/02/19/doug-allen-on-alchian/ |website=organizationsandmarkets.com |publisher=Organizations and Markets |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210830195438/https://organizationsandmarkets.com/2013/02/19/doug-allen-on-alchian/ |archive-date=30 August 2021 |date=19 February 2013|quote=I only met Armen once, but his influence on me was profound.}} Axel Leijonhufvud,{{efn|"Like others who have had the privilege of being Armen's students and colleagues, I have learned a great deal from his ideas."{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|p=418}} }} Robert H. Topel.{{sfn|Alchian|Buchanan|Demsetz|Leijonhufvud|1996|pp=412, 422}}

Hubbard argues that Alchian's 1972 paper "Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization" influenced works in the economics of organization by Bengt Holmström, Oliver Hart, and Paul Milgrom.

• Member of the Mont Pelerin Society (1957){{cite web |title=MONT PELERIN SOCIETY DIRECTORY – 2010 |url=https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Mont%20Pelerin%20Society%20Directory%202010.pdf |publisher=DeSmogBlog |quote=Professor Armen A. Alchian 1957, Life Member |access-date=2020-01-12 |archive-date=2020-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200112151711/https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Mont%20Pelerin%20Society%20Directory%202010.pdf |url-status=dead }}
• President of the Western Economic Association International (1975){{cite web |title=Past Presidents |url=https://weai.org/assets/418.pdf |website=92nd Annual Conference Program |publisher=Western Economic Association International |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111103749/https://weai.org/assets/418.pdf |archive-date=11 January 2020 |page=5 |date=June 2017}}
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1978){{cite web |title=Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1780–2019 – A |url=https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2019-10/ChapterA.pdf |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109143951/https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2019-10/ChapterA.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2020 |quote=Alchian, Armen Albert (1914–2013) Election: 1978, Fellow}}
• Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association (1996){{cite web |title=Distinguished Fellows |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/honors-awards/distinguished-fellows |publisher=American Economic Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109135529/https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/honors-awards/distinguished-fellows |archive-date=9 January 2020}}
• Adam Smith Award by the Association of Private Enterprise Education (2000){{cite web |title=Adam Smith Award |url=https://www.apee.org/adam-smith-award/ |website=apee.org |publisher=Association of Private Enterprise Education |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927182614/https://www.apee.org/adam-smith-award/ |archive-date=27 September 2021}}
• Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs{{cite web |title=Rescuing Social Capital from Social Democracy |url=https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/upldbook420pdf.pdf |website=About the IEA |publisher=Institute of Economic Affairs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191130204748/https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/upldbook420pdf.pdf |archive-date=30 November 2019 |page=107 |quote=Honorary Fellows: Professor Armen A Alchian}}

;Honorary doctorates

• University of Rochester (1983){{cite journal |title=Commencement |journal=Rochester Review |date=Summer 1983 |page=20 |url=https://www.lib.rochester.edu/IN/RBSCP/Databases/Attachments/Reviews/1983/45-4/1983_Summer.pdf |publisher=University of Rochester |quote=When the 1983 Commencement finally ended, four weeks after it began, some 2,100 new degrees had been awarded, including three more honorary doctorates: to the distinguished economist Armen A. Alchian of the University of California at Los Angeles (at the GSM exercises)...|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109202203/https://www.lib.rochester.edu/IN/RBSCP/Databases/Attachments/Reviews/1983/45-4/1983_Summer.pdf |archive-date=2020-01-09 }}
• Universidad Francisco Marroquín (2010){{cite web |title=Honorary Doctoral Degrees |url=https://www.ufm.edu/cms/es/honorary-doctoral-degrees |website=ufm.edu |publisher=Universidad Francisco Marroquín |quote=May 8, 2010 ARMEN A. ALCHIAN|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501185429/https://www.ufm.edu/cms/es/honorary-doctoral-degrees |archive-date=2011-05-01 }}

;Tributes

• The Armen A. Alchian Chair in Economic Theory at UCLA was established in July 1997.{{cite web |last1=Levine |first1=David K. |authorlink1=David K. Levine |title=The Armen Alchian Chair in Economic Theory |url=http://www.dklevine.com/General/alchianchair.htm |website=dklevine.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111102307/http://www.dklevine.com/General/alchianchair.htm |archive-date=11 January 2020}}
• The Armenian Economic Association presents the Armen Alchian Award since 2014.{{cite web |title=Best Paper Awards |url=http://www.aea.am/awards.html |publisher=Armenian Economic Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200110193236/http://www.aea.am/awards.html |archive-date=10 January 2020}}

• Daron Acemoglu, another prominent American economist of Armenian origin{{cite journal |last1=Takooshian |first1=Harold |author1-link=Harold Takooshian |title=Armenian-Americans in the Behavioral Sciences |journal=Main Issues of Pedagogy and Psychology |date=2020 |volume=18 |issue=2 |page=8 |doi=10.24234/miopap.v18i2.374 |publisher=Khachatur Abovyan Armenian State Pedagogical University |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |issn=1829-1295 |doi-access=free }}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter |authorlink1=Peter Boettke |title=The Austrian Tradition in Economics |url=https://www.libertarianism.org/media/free-thoughts/austrian-tradition-economics |website=Libertarianism.org |publisher=Cato Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108183208/https://www.libertarianism.org/media/free-thoughts/austrian-tradition-economics |archive-date=8 January 2020 |date=June 1, 2015}}

{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Walter E. |authorlink=Walter E. Williams |title=Do People Care? |url=https://townhall.com/Columnists/walterewilliams/2007/07/04/do-people-care-n838214 |work=Townhall |date=July 4, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108125405/https://townhall.com/Columnists/walterewilliams/2007/07/04/do-people-care-n838214 |archive-date=8 January 2020}}

{{cite journal |last1=Manne |first1=Geoffrey A. |last2=Zywicki |first2=Todd J. |authorlink2=Todd Zywicki |title=Uncertainty, Evolution, and Behavioral Economic Theory |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311486692 |date=9 March 2014 |ssrn=2406175 |journal=Journal of Law, Economics & Policy |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=555–580}}

{{cite web |last1=Sullivan |first1=Meg |title=Obituary: Armen Alchian, 98, professor emeritus of economics at UCLA |url=http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/armen-alchian-98-243658 |website=UCLA Newsroom |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107192531/http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/armen-alchian-98-243658 |archive-date=7 January 2020 |date=February 19, 2013}}

{{cite journal |title=Armen A. Alchian: Distinguished Fellow |journal=The American Economic Review |date=June 1997 |volume=87 |issue=3 |jstor=2951344 }}

{{cite news |title=Armen Alchian |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=armen-alchian&pid=163245781&fhid=11024 |work=Los Angeles Times |agency=Legacy.com |date=February 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109201333/https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=armen-alchian&pid=163245781&fhid=11024 |archive-date=9 January 2020}}

{{cite news |last1=Henderson |first1=David R. |authorlink1=David R. Henderson |title=An Economist Who Made the Science Less Dismal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323495104578314253161656148 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=February 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231110014946/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323495104578314253161656148 |archive-date=10 November 2023}}

{{cite news |title="The Armenian Adam Smith": UCLA Holds Conference in Honor of Armenian Economist |url=http://asbarez.com/53710/the-armenian-adam-smith-ucla-holds-conference-in-honor-of-armenian-economist/ |work=Asbarez |date=May 26, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111104319/http://asbarez.com/53710/the-armenian-adam-smith-ucla-holds-conference-in-honor-of-armenian-economist/ |archive-date=11 January 2020}}

{{cite web |last1=Higgs |first1=Robert |authorlink1=Robert Higgs |title=Armen Alchian (April 12, 1914 – February 19, 2013) |url=https://blog.independent.org/2013/02/19/armen-alchian-april-12-1914-february-19-2013/ |publisher=Independent Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107193006/https://blog.independent.org/2013/02/19/armen-alchian-april-12-1914-february-19-2013/ |archive-date=7 January 2020 |date=February 19, 2013}}

{{cite web |last1=Clough |first1=Richard |title=An economic tradition |url=https://dailybruin.com/2006/05/07/an-economic-tradition/ |website=Daily Bruin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108130829/https://dailybruin.com/2006/05/07/an-economic-tradition/ |archive-date=8 January 2020 |date=May 7, 2006}}

{{cite web |last1=Crane |first1=Jennifer |title=Professor emeritus in economics, Armen Alchian, dies |url=https://dailybruin.com/2013/03/07/professor-emeritus-in-economics-armen-alchian-dies/ |website=Daily Bruin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108130849/https://dailybruin.com/2013/03/07/professor-emeritus-in-economics-armen-alchian-dies/ |archive-date=8 January 2020 |date=March 7, 2013}}

{{cite journal |last1=Lott Jr. |first1=John R. |authorlink1=John R. Lott |title=Armen A. Alchian's influence on economics |journal=Economic Inquiry |date=July 1996 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=409–411 |doi=10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01385.x }}

{{cite book |last1=Beaud |first1=Michel |last2=Dostaler |first2=Gilles |authorlink1=:fr:Michel Beaud |authorlink2=:fr:Gilles Dostaler |title=Economic Thought Since Keynes: A History and Dictionary of Major Economists |date=1995 |publisher=Routledge |location=London and New York |isbn=0415164540 |pages=152–153 |chapter=ALCHIAN Armen Albert (born 1914)}}

{{cite web |last1=Sanchez |first1=Dan |title=Armen Alchian, RIP |url=https://mises.org/wire/armen-alchian-rip |publisher=Mises Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108122946/https://mises.org/wire/armen-alchian-rip |archive-date=8 January 2020 |date=21 February 2013}}

{{cite web |last1=Benjamin |first1=Daniel |title=In Memoriam: Armen Alchian (1914–2013) |url=https://www.perc.org/2013/02/19/in-memoriam-armen-alchian-1914-2013/ |publisher=Property and Environment Research Center |date=February 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914144735/https://www.perc.org/2013/02/19/in-memoriam-armen-alchian-1914-2013/ |archive-date=14 September 2021}}

{{cite journal |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter J. |last2=Candela |first2=Rosolino A. |authorlink1=Peter Boettke |title=Alchian, Buchanan, and Coase: A Neglected Branch of Chicago Price Theory |journal=Man and the Economy |date=2014 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=189–208 |doi=10.1515/me-2014-0022 |publisher=De Gruyter|s2cid=199575704 }}

{{cite journal |last1=Blanchard III |first1=James U. |authorlink1=James U. Blanchard III |title=Exclusive Interview with F.A. Hayek |journal=Cato Policy Report |publisher=Cato Institute |date= 1984 |volume=VI |issue=5 |pages=10–12 |url=https://www.cato.org/policy-report/mayjune-1984/exclusive-interview-fa-hayek |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150730201542/http://www.cato.org/policy-report/mayjune-1984/exclusive-interview-fa-hayek |archive-date=July 30, 2015}}, [https://web.archive.org/web/20210927182816/https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/policy-report/1984/6/v6n5.pdf archived PDF] "Q: Who's your favorite economist, besides F. A. Hayek? Hayek: Well, among the not really young ones are Armen Alchian and George Stigler. Until recently, my dear friend Lionel Robbins, who has had a stroke and is now out of action."

{{cite web |last1=Culyer |first1=Anthony J. |authorlink1=Anthony J. Culyer |title=Acceptance Speech: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants |url=https://www.ohe.org/sites/default/files/Acceptance%20Speech.pdf |website=Value & Outcomes Spotlight |publisher=The Office of Health Economics |pages=32–34 |date=2015 |access-date=2020-01-12 |archive-date=2021-08-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210830160543/https://www.ohe.org/sites/default/files/Acceptance%20Speech.pdf |url-status=live }}

{{cite journal |last1=Brunner |first1=Karl |authorlink1=Karl Brunner (economist) |title=Armen A. Alchian |journal=Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft |date=March 1987 |volume=143 |issue=1 |pages=229–231 |jstor=40750974 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40750974 |access-date=2021-08-25 |archive-date=2021-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825161126/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40750974 |url-status=live }}

{{cite web |last1=Muris |first1=Timothy |author1-link=Timothy Muris |title=Improving the Economic Foundations of Competition Policy |url=https://www.ftc.gov/es/public-statements/2003/01/improving-economic-foundations-competition-policy |website=ftc.gov |publisher=Federal Trade Commission |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829234014/https://www.ftc.gov/es/public-statements/2003/01/improving-economic-foundations-competition-policy |archive-date=29 August 2021 |date=15 January 2003}}

{{cite journal |last1=Woodward |first1=Susan |author1-link=Susan L. Woodward |title=Memories of Armen |journal=Journal of Corporate Finance |date=June 2017 |volume=44 |pages=385–387 |doi=10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2016.03.007 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929119916300311|url-access=subscription }}

{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=William R. |author1-link=William R. Allen (economist) |title=A Life among the Econ, Particularly at UCLA |journal=Econ Journal Watch |date=September 2010 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=205–234 |url=https://econjwatch.org/articles/a-life-among-the-econ-particularly-at-ucla |access-date=2021-09-18 |archive-date=2021-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918175320/https://econjwatch.org/articles/a-life-among-the-econ-particularly-at-ucla |url-status=live }} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20210918183323/https://econjwatch.org/File+download/452/AllenMemoirSept2010.pdf?mimetype=pdf archived])

{{cite book |last1=Sharpe |first1=William F. |author1-link=William F. Sharpe |editor1-last=Breit |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=Spencer |editor2-first=Roger W. |title=Lives of the Laureates: Thirteen Nobel Economists |date=1995 |publisher=The MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0262023917 |pages=203–226 |edition=3rd |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/lives-laureates-third-edition |chapter=William Sharpe |access-date=2022-01-23 |archive-date=2022-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123091931/https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/lives-laureates-third-edition |url-status=live }}

{{cite web |last1=Hubbard |first1=Thomas N. |author1-link=Thomas N. Hubbard |title=A Legend in Economics Passes |url=https://digitopoly.org/2013/02/20/a-legend-in-economics-passes/ |website=digitopoly.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910121231/https://digitopoly.org/2013/02/20/a-legend-in-economics-passes/ |archive-date=10 September 2022 |date=February 20, 2013}}

{{cite web |last1=Hubbard |first1=Thomas N. |author1-link=Thomas N. Hubbard |title=The ideas of Harold Demsetz, 1930-2019 |url=https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ideas-harold-demsetz-1930-2019 |publisher=Centre for Economic Policy Research |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911074821/https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ideas-harold-demsetz-1930-2019 |archive-date=11 September 2022 |date=30 January 2019}}

{{cite book |last1=Blaug |first1=Mark |author1-link=Mark Blaug |title=Great Economists Since Keynes: An Introduction to the Lives and Works of One Hundred Modern Economists |date=1998 |orig-date=1985 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |location=Cheltenham, UK |isbn=978-1858986920 |pages=xiii, 4-6 |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/greateconomistss00blau/}}

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• {{cite journal |last1=Alchian |first1=Armen A. |last2=Buchanan |first2=James M. |last3=Demsetz |first3=Harold |last4=Leijonhufvud |first4=Axel |last5=Lott Jr. |first5=John R. |last6=Sharpe |first6=Williams F. |last7=Topel |first7=Robert H. |author2-link=James M. Buchanan |author3-link=Harold Demsetz |author4-link=Axel Leijonhufvud |author5-link=John R. Lott Jr. |author6-link=William F. Sharpe |title=In celebration of Armen Alchian's 80th birthday: Living and breathing economics |journal=Economic Inquiry |date=July 1996 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=412–426 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01386.x |publisher=Western Economic Association International|doi=10.1111/j.1465-7295.1996.tb01386.x |url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |last1=Read |first1=Colin |title=The Corporate Financiers: Williams, Modigliani, Miller, Coase, Williamson, Alchian, Demsetz, Jensen and Meckling |date=2015 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1137341280}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Maloney |first1=Michael T. |title=Alchian remembrances |journal=Journal of Corporate Finance |date=1 June 2017 |volume=44 |pages=561–582 |doi=10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2016.03.008 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929119916300323 |issn=0929-1199|url-access=subscription }}

• {{cite web |author= Armen Alchian |title= The Hayek Interviews |url= https://hayek.ufm.edu/about-these-videos/ |publisher= Hosted by Universidad Francisco Marroquín |date= 1978 |accessdate= 5 October 2024}}; [https://www.freetochoosenetwork.org/ideachannel/search.php via FREE TO CHOOSE NETWORK].
• {{cite book |chapter= Tape: Armen Alchian date: November 11, 1978 |title= NOBEL-PRIZE WINNING ECONOMIST FRIEDRICH VON HAYEK: Interviewed by Earlene Craver, Axel Leijonhufvud, Leo Rosten, Jack High, James Buchanan, Robert Bork, Thomas Hazlett, Armen A. Alchian, Robert Chitester; Completed under the Auspices of the Oral History Program of University of California, Los Angeles |publisher= The Regents of the University of California |date= 1983 |url= https://archive.org/details/nobelprizewinnin00haye/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater |pages= [https://archive.org/details/nobelprizewinnin00haye/page/n759/mode/2up?view=theater 362]-429 |via= Internet Archive |accessdate= 5 October 2024}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname= Armen Alchian}}
• {{Google Scholar id|Y-b6uCUAAAAJ}}

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{{Chicago school economists}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alchian, Armen}}

Category:1914 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:Economists from California

Category:New institutional economists

Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Distinguished fellows of the American Economic Association

Category:Member of the Mont Pelerin Society

Category:RAND Corporation people

Category:Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni

Category:People from Fresno, California

Category:20th-century American economists

Category:21st-century American economists

Category:American people of Armenian descent