主要经历

早年生活

弗里德曼生于纽约市一个工人阶级的犹太人家庭，父亲是耶诺·绍尔·弗里德曼（Jeno Saul Friedman），母亲是萨拉·埃特尔·兰道（Sarah Ethel Landau，1892年-？），两人从奥匈帝国（今乌克兰一带）移居美国，在当地邂逅，曾在血汗工厂工作。弗里德曼是家中第一个孩子，也是唯一的男孩。他的三个妹妹包括：蒂莉·F·弗里德曼（Tillie F. Friedman，1919年-？）、海伦·弗里德曼（Helen Friedman，1920年-？）和露丝·弗里德曼（Ruth Friedman，1921年-？）。高中时，弗里德曼父亲逝世后，举家搬到新泽西州的罗威市（Rahway）。

求学时期

他16岁前完成高中，凭奖学金入读罗格斯大学。原打算成为精算师的弗里德曼最初修读数学，但成绩平平。1932年取得文学士，翌年他到芝加哥大学修读硕士，1933年芝大硕士毕业。上第一堂经济课时，座位是以姓氏字母编排，他紧随一名叫罗斯（Rose Director）的女生之后。两人6年后结婚，从此终生不渝。弗里德曼曾说他的作品无一不被罗斯审阅，更笑言自己成为学术权威后，罗斯是唯一胆敢跟他辩论的人.

毕业后，他曾为罗斯福新政工作以求糊口，批准了许多早期的新政措施以解决当时面临的艰难经济情况，尤其是新政的许多公共建设计划。辗转间他到哥伦比亚大学继续修读经济学，研究计量、制度及实践经济学。返回芝加哥后，获亨利·舒尔茨（Henry Schultz）聘任为研究助理，协助完成《需求理论及计算》论文。为美国国家经济研究局工作时，他1940年曾完成一书，指医生的垄断局面导致他们的收入远高于牙医，引起局方争议，令该书要在战后始能出版。

弗里德曼在威斯康辛大学任教了一小段时间，但由于在经济学系里碰上了反犹主义者的阻挠而只得返回政府部门工作。

1941年至1943年，他出任美国财政部顾问，研究战时税务政策，曾支持凯恩斯主义的税赋政策，并且协助推广预扣所得税制度。1943年至1945年在哥伦比亚大学参与Harold Hotelling及W. Allen Wallis的研究小组，为武器设计、战略及冶金实验分析数据。1945年，他与后来的诺贝尔经济学奖得主乔治·斯蒂格勒到明尼苏达大学任职，1946年他获哥伦比亚大学博士学位，随后回到芝加哥大学教授经济理论，期间再为国家经济研究局研究货币在商业周期的角色。这是他学术上的重大分水岭。

在他的自传中，弗里德曼曾描述1941至43年为罗斯福新政工作时，“当时我是一个彻底的凯恩斯主义者”。随着时间过去，弗里德曼对于经济政策的看法也逐渐转变，他在芝大成立货币及银行研究小组，借着经济史论家安娜·施瓦茨的协助，发表影响深远的《美国货币史》著作。他在书中挑战凯恩斯学派的观点，抨击他们忽略货币供应、金融政策对经济周期及通胀的重要性。

学术生涯

他接着在芝加哥大学担任经济学教授，直至1976年退休。这30年里他将芝大经济系形塑成紧密而完整的经济学派，力倡自由经济，被称为芝加哥经济学派。在弗里德曼的领导下，多名芝加哥学派的成员获得诺贝尔经济学奖。他在1953年至1954年间以访问学者的身分前往英国剑桥大学冈维尔与凯斯学院任教。从1977年开始弗里德曼也加入了斯坦福大学的胡佛研究所。弗里德曼在1988年取得了美国的国家科学奖章。

他在1980主持了名为“选择的自由”的节目，并出版了同名的著作，使得他广泛的被大众认识。在节目中他以一支铅笔说明自由市场的原理的片段，成为了他广受欢迎的一段言论，至今在网络上依然可以见到其踪影。

他通常反对政府干预的计划，尤其是对于市场价格的管制，他认为价格在市场机制里扮演调度资源所不可或缺的信号功能。在《美国货币历史》一书中，他提出大萧条其实是政府对于货币供应管制不当所致。后来他在2006年说道：“你知道吗？很奇怪的是为何人们仍以为是罗斯福的政策让我们脱离了经济大萧条。当时的问题是，你有一堆失业的机器和失业的人民，你怎么能靠着成立产业垄断集团和提升价格及工资来解决他们的问题？”

1992年获诺贝尔经济奖的加里·贝克形容，弗里德曼可能是全球最为人认识的经济学家，“他能以最简单的语言表达最艰深的经济理论”。他亦是极出色的演说家，能随时即席演说，极富说服力。香港科技大学经济发展研究中心主任雷鼎鸣形容弗里德曼思考快如闪电，据说辩论从未输过。“无人敢说辩赢了他，因与他辩论过已是无限光荣，没多少人能与他说上两分钟。”

家庭情况

弗里德曼是学术世家。他妻子罗丝是经济学家，其妻兄长亚伦·戴雷科特是芝加哥大学声望显赫的法律学教授。弗里德曼育有两名子女，包括女儿珍尼·弗里德曼及大卫·弗里德曼，大卫本身是无政府资本主义学说的重要学者。大卫的儿子Patri毕业于斯坦福大学，2006年时在Google任职。

逝世情况

他于2006年11月16日在旧金山家中因心脏病发引致衰竭逝世。

主要作品

学术著作

"Professor Pigou's Method for Measuring Elasticities of Demand From Budgetary Data" The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 50, No. 1 (Nov., 1935), pp. 151-163 JSTOR

"Marginal Utility of Money and Elasticities of Demand," The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 50, No. 3 (May, 1936), pp. 532-533 JSTOR

"The Use of Ranks to Avoid the Assumption of Normality Implicit in the Analysis of Variance," Journal of the American Statistical Association Vol. 32, No. 200 (Dec., 1937), pp. 675-701 JSTOR

"The Inflationary Gap: II. Discussion of the Inflationary Gap," American Economic Review Vol. 32, No. 2, Part 1 (Jun., 1942), pp. 314-320 JSTOR

"The Spendings Tax as a Wartime Fiscal Measure," American Economic Review Vol. 33, No. 1, Part 1 (Mar., 1943), pp. 50-62 JSTOR

Taxing to Prevent Inflation: Techniques for Estimating Revenue Requirements (Columbia U.P. 1943, 236pp) with Carl Shoup and Ruth P. Mack

Income from Independent Professional Practice with Simon Kuznets (1945), 弗里德曼的博士论文

"Lange on Price Flexibility and Employment: A Methodological Criticism," American Economic Review Vol. 36, No. 4 (Sep., 1946), pp. 613-631 JSTOR

"Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk" with Leonard Savage, 1948, Journal of Political Economy Vol. 56, No. 4 (Aug., 1948), pp. 279-304 JSTOR

"A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability", 1948, American Economic Review, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jun., 1948), pp. 245-264 JSTOR

"A Fiscal and Monetary Framework for Economic Stability," Econometrica Vol. 17, Supplement: Report of the Washington Meeting (Jul., 1949), pp. 330-332 JSTOR

"The Marshallian Demand Curve," The Journal of Political Economy Vol. 57, No. 6 (Dec., 1949), pp. 463-495 JSTOR

"Wesley C. Mitchell as an Economic Theorist," The Journal of Political Economy Vol. 58, No. 6 (Dec., 1950), pp. 465-493 JSTOR

"Some Comments on the Significance of Labor Unions for Economic Policy", 1951, in D. McC. Wright, editor, The Impact of the Union.

"Commodity-Reserve Currency," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 59, No. 3 (Jun., 1951), pp. 203-232 JSTOR

"Price, Income, and Monetary Changes in Three Wartime Periods," American Economic Review Vol. 42, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1952), pp. 612-625 JSTOR

"The Expected-Utility Hypothesis and the Measurability of Utility", with Leonard Savage, 1952, Journal of Political Economy Vol. 60, No. 6 (Dec., 1952), pp. 463-474 JSTOR

The Methodology of Positive Economics (1953)

Essays in Positive Economics (1953)

"Choice, Chance, and the Personal Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 61, No. 4 (Aug., 1953), pp. 277-290 JSTOR

"The Quantity Theory of Money: A restatement", 1956, in Friedman, editor, Studies in Quantity Theory.

A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957)

"A Statistical Illusion in Judging Keynesian Models" with Gary S. Becker, Journal of Political Economy Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb., 1957), pp. 64-75 JSTOR

"The Supply of Money and Changes in Prices and Output", 1958, in Relationship of Prices to Economic Stability and Growth.

"The Demand for Money: Some Theoretical and Empirical Results," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 67, No. 4 (Aug., 1959), pp. 327-351 JSTOR

A Program for Monetary Stability (Fordham University Press, 1960) 110 pp

"Monetary Data and National Income Estimates," Economic Development and Cultural Change Vol. 9, No. 3, (Apr., 1961), pp. 267-286 JSTOR

"The Lag in Effect of Monetary Policy," Journal of Political EconomyVol. 69, No. 5 (Oct., 1961), pp. 447-466 JSTOR

Price Theory ISBN 0-202-06074-8 (1962), college textbook

"The Interpolation of Time Series by Related Series," Journal of the American Statistical Association Vol. 57, No. 300 (Dec., 1962), pp. 729-757 JSTOR

"Should There be an Independent Monetary Authority?", in L.B. Yeager, editor, In Search of a Monetary Constitution

Inflation: Causes and consequences, 1963.

"Money and Business Cycles," The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 45, No. 1, Part 2, Supplement (Feb., 1963), pp. 32-64 JSTOR

A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, with Anna J. Schwartz, 1963; part 3 reprinted as The Great Contraction

"Money and Business Cycles" with A. J. Schwartz, 1963, Review of Economics & Statistics.

"The Relative Stability of Monetary Velocity and the Investment Multiplier in the United States, 1898-1958", with D. Meiselman, 1963, in Stabilization Policies.

"A Reply to Donald Hester", with D. Meiselman, 1964

"Reply to Ando and Modigliani and to DePrano and Mayer," with David Meiselman. American Economic Review Vol. 55, No. 4 (Sep., 1965), pp. 753-785 JSTOR

"Interest Rates and the Demand for Money," Journal of Law and Economics Vol. 9 (Oct., 1966), pp. 71-85 JSTOR

The Balance of Payments: Free Versus Fixed Exchange Rates with Robert V. Roosa (1967)]

"The Monetary Theory and Policy of Henry Simons," Journal of Law and Economics Vol. 10 (Oct., 1967), pp. 1-13 JSTOR

"What Price Guideposts?", in G.P. Schultz, R.Z. Aliber, editors, Guidelines

"The Role of Monetary Policy." American Economic Review, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Mar., 1968), pp. 1-17 JSTOR presidential address to American Economics Association

"Money: the Quantity Theory", 1968, IESS

"The Definition of Money: Net Wealth and Neutrality as Criteria" with Anna J. Schwartz, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Vol. 1, No. 1 (Feb., 1969), pp. 1-14 JSTOR

'Monetary vs. Fiscal Policy with Walter W. Heller (1969)

"Comment on Tobin", 1970, Quarterly Journal of Economics

"Monetary Statistics of the United States: Sources, methods. with Anna J. Schwartz, 1970.

"A Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 78, No. 2 (Mar., 1970), pp. 193-238 JSTOR

The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory 1970.

"A Monetary Theory of National Income", 1971, Journal of Political Economy

"Government Revenue from Inflation," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 79, No. 4 (Jul., 1971), pp. 846-856 JSTOR

"Have Monetary Policies Failed?" American Economic Review Vol. 62, No. 1/2 (1972), pp. 11-18 JSTOR

"Comments on the Critics," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 80, No. 5 (Sep., 1972), pp. 906-950 JSTOR

"Comments on the Critics", 1974, in Gordon, ed. Milton Friedman and his Critics.

"Monetary Correction: A proposal for escalation clauses to reduce the cost of ending inflation", 1974

The Optimum Quantity of Money: And Other Essays (1976)

Milton Friedman in Australia, 1975 (1975)

Milton Friedman's Monetary Framework: A Debate with His Critics (1975)

"Comments on Tobin and Buiter", 1976, in J. Stein, editor, Monetarism.

"Inflation and Unemployment: Nobel lecture", 1977, Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 85, pp. 451-72. JSTOR

"Interrelations between the United States and the United Kingdom, 1873-1975.", with A.J. Schwartz, 1982, J Int Money and Finance

Monetary Trends in the United States and the United Kingdom: Their relations to income, prices and interest rates, 1876-1975. with Anna J. Schwartz, 1982

"Monetary Policy: Theory and Practice," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Vol. 14, No. 1 (Feb., 1982), pp. 98-118 JSTOR

"Monetary Policy: Tactics versus strategy", 1984, in Moore, editor, To Promote Prosperity.

“Lessons from the 1979-1982 Monetary Policy Experiment, ” Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association. pp. 397-401. (1984).

"Has Government Any Role in Money?" with Anna J. Schwartz, 1986, JME

"Quantity Theory of Money", in J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, P. Newman, eds., The New Palgrave (1998)

"Money and the Stock Market," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 96, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 221-245 JSTOR

"Bimetallism Revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 85-104 JSTOR

"The Crime of 1873," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 98, No. 6 (Dec., 1990), pp. 1159-1194 JSTOR

"Franklin D. Roosevelt, Silver, and China," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 100, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 62-83 JSTOR

人物传记

Chao, Hsiang-ke. "Milton Friedman and the Emergence of the Permanent Income Hypothesis" History of Political Economy 2003 35(1): 77-104. Issn: 0018-2702 Fulltext in Project Muse

A.W. Bob Coats; "The Legacy of Milton Friedman as Teacher" Economic Record, Vol. 77, 2001

Frazer, William. Power and Ideas: Milton Friedman and the Big U-Turn. Vol. 1: The Background. Vol. 2: The U-Turn. Gainesville, Fla.: Gulf/Atlantic, 1988. 867 pp.

Hammond, J. Daniel. "Remembering Economics" Journal of the History of Economic Thought 2003 25(2): 133-143. Issn: 1042-7716; focus is on Friedman

Hirsch, Abraham, and Neil de Marchi. Milton Friedman: Economics in Theory and Practice (1990) his methodology

Jordan, Jerry L., Allan H. Meltzer, Thomas J. Sargent and Anna J. Schwartz; "Milton, Money, and Mischief: Symposium and Articles in Honor of Milton Friedman's 80th Birthday" Economic Inquiry. Volume: 31. Issue: 2. 1993. pp 197+.

Kasper, Sherryl. The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: A Case Study of Its Pioneers (2002)

Leeson, Robert, ed. Ideology and International Economy: The Decline and Fall of Bretton Woods (2003)

Powell, Jim. The Triumph of Liberty (New York: Free Press, 2000). See profile of Friedman in the chapter "Inflation and Depression."

Rayack; Elton. Not So Free to Choose: The Political Economy of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan Praeger, 1987; attacks Friedman's policies from the left

Steindl, Frank G. "Friedman and Money in the 1930s" History of Political Economy 2004 36(3): 521-531. Issn: 0018-2702 lecture notes from his 1940 course show he did not criticize the Fed at that time, and did not emphasize money.

Tavlas, George S. "Retrospectives: Was the Monetarist Tradition Invented?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 1998 12(4): 211-222. Issn: 0895-3309 Fulltext in JSTOR

Stigler, George Joseph. Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist (1988)

Wahid, Abu N. M. ed; Frontiers of Economics: Nobel Laureates of the Twentieth Century. Greenwood Press. 2002 pp 109-15.

翻译著作

《实证经济学论文集》（Essays in Positive Economics）

《消费函数理论》（A Theory of the Consumption Function）

《资本主义与自由》（Capitalism and Freedom）

《自由选择》（Free to Choose）

《价格理论》（Price Theory：A Provisional Text）

《美国货币史》（A Monetary History of the United States，1867一1960）与施瓦兹（Anna J.Schwartz）

贡献影响

理论综述

弗里德曼最知名的理论，是他提出的货币供给作为决定生产价值基准的因素，通货膨胀在根本上源自于货币供给量的主张。货币主义是现代经济学在货币数量理论的重要观点之一，这种理论的根源可以追溯至16世纪西班牙的萨拉曼卡学派，弗里德曼的贡献则是现代化了这种理论，将其推广为现代经济学的主流货币学说。他在1963年与Anna Schwartz合著的A Monetary History of the United States一书中检验了美国历史上货币供给和经济活动之间的关联。他们得出了惊人结论：货币供给一向是经济活动起伏的唯一影响来源。又或者如同美国联邦储备系统的主席本·伯南克在2002年庆祝弗里德曼90岁生日时所描述的：“有关大萧条，你是正确的，我们（联邦储备系统）当时的确做错了。我们真的很抱歉。”David Meiselman在1960年代进行的几次研究显示了货币供给在决定经济投资、以及政府开销在决定消费及生产总额上的角色是至高无上的。弗里德曼的观察研究和一些学说进一步推展了这种结论，主张货币供给的改变是影响经济生产的首要原因，但长期的影响则是由物价水平决定的。

弗里德曼对于消费层面的分析也相当知名，亦即他在1957年提出的恒常所得假说。这个理论被一些经济学者视为是他在经济学方法论上最重要的贡献。他其他重要的贡献还包括了对菲利普斯曲线的批评，以及他提出的失业率的自然比率的概念（1968年）。这些学说都与货币和金融政策在对经济的长期及短期影响上有关。在统计学上，他则创造出了知名的弗里德曼测试。

弗里德曼的论文The Methodology of Positive Economics（1953年）则替他稍后几十年的研究方法论架构了模型，并且也成为了芝加哥经济学派的主要框架之一。他主张经济学身为一种学科，应该免于客观的价值衡量。除此之外，一个经济理论有用与否，不应该是以它对现实的描述（例如头发颜色）作为衡量标准，而是应该以它能否有效作为对未来情况的预测为基准。

现代货币数量论

弗里德曼在理论上有三大贡献，首先是提出现代货币数量论，即通货膨胀起源于“太多的货币追逐太少的商品”。政府可以通过控制货币增长来遏制通胀。这被视为现代经济理论的一场革命。

消费函数理论

其次，他创立消费函数理论，对凯恩斯经济理论中的边际消费递减规律进行驳斥。凯恩斯认为，随着社会财富和个人收入的增加，人们用于消费方面的支出呈递减趋势，与此同时储蓄则越来越多。因此政府可以通过增加公共支出来抵消个人消费的减少，从而保证经济的持续增长。弗里德曼指出，这一理论站不住脚，因为人们的欲望实际上永无止境，原有的得到满足后，新的随即产生。

“自然率假说”理论

第三，1968年，弗里德曼与美国哥伦比亚大学经济学家菲尔普同时提出“自然率假说”理论。他们发现，长期来看，失业率与通货膨胀并没有必然联系。自然失业率永远存在，是不可消除的。因此政府的宏观调控政策长期来看是不起任何作用的。

获奖记录

1951年：约翰·贝兹·克拉克奖（John Bates Clark Medal）

1976年：诺贝尔经济学奖

1988年：国家科学奖章

1988年：总统自由勋章（Presidential Medal of Freedom）