Since the early 1970s, discussions of economic policy have been threaded with references to the “Chicago School,” a shorthand for the powerful cluster of economists who trained in or taught at the University of Chicago. Ranging from Milton Friedman’s monetarism to George Stigler’s support for deregulation, the ideas of the Chicago economists inspired a multi-pronged assault on the Keynesian consensus that has reframed public policy debates ever since.

Perceptions of the Chicago School tend to fixate on Friedman and the policy...