Robert,

the more general term "misused" would get you more examples than "deified". For example, Coase did not write about Post Communist Privatization, and has himself criticized some of the ways that The Coase Theorem has been used. Some have made it into a Panglossian proposition, others have refashined it into a strawman. 

Paul Krugman and Gary Becker have both written extensively in popular publications. I am quite sure that Krugman has broken Hayek's rule, and would not be surprised that Becker had too. Stiglitz has also strayed from his area of information economics many times. 

One might easily argue that the Rational Expectations Revolution got completely out of hand. Lucas's Island Model is really not that outrageous, and Lucas's own personal statements about the REH are more moderate than what most of us are used to hearing about REH and RBCT. Friedman himself once said that the whole REH thing went too far. Its almost a Mary Shelley type of thing- possibly not what Lucas expected. Since he is still around, someone might ask him about this.

Examination of the unitended consequences, unforseen changes in, or misuses of Nobel worthy ideas would be a job for someone in the HES. It might be fun reading too.

DWM Ph.D.



> The 'insights' behind the Prize often become deified. Is
> there sufficient interest to warrant a volume on the
> extra-scientific clout that Nobel laureates and their work
> carry: e.g.
> 
> Leontief: economic planning
> various: deregulation of the financial sector
> Scholes: LTCM
> Coase Theorem: post-communist privatisation 
>  
> Robert Leeson
> 
> Vol 1: The Keynesian Tradition (2008) Palgrave Macmillan http://us.macmillan.com/thekeynesiantradition 
> 
> Vol 2: The Anti-Keynesian Tradition (2008) Palgrave
> Macmillan http://us.macmillan.com/theantikeynesiantradition 
> 
> Vol 3: American Power and Policy (2009) Palgrave Macmillan
> http://us.macmillan.com/americanpowerandpolicy 
> 
> Vol 4: Hayek and Behavioural Economics (2012) 
> 
> Vol 5: Hayek: Biographical Studies (2012) 
> 
> Vol 6: ?The Nobel Prize for Economic Science?
>