Manhattan Institute Announces Johan Norberg as Hayek Book Prize Winner

New York, NY (March 28, 2025) —The Manhattan Institute (MI) is pleased to announce that Johan Norberg has won the 21^st annual Hayek Book Prize for his book The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World.(Atlantic Books, 2023). Norberg will receive a $50,000 award and deliver the annual Hayek Lecture in New York City on June 4.

Norberg, whose book makes the case for capitalism and the vital role played by the free market in today's uncertain world, was among six finalists:  

• Bryan Caplan and Ady Branzei, Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation.(Cato Institute, 2024)
• Philip K. Howard, Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society.(Rodin Books, 2024)
• Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber, Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation.(Stripe Press, 2024)
• Johan Norberg, The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World.(Atlantic Books, 2023)
• Weiying Zhang, Re-Understanding Entrepreneurship: What It Is and Why It Matters.(Cambridge University Press, 2024)
• Rainer Zitelmann, How Nations Escape Poverty: Vietnam, Poland, and the Origins of Prosperity.(Encounter Books, 2024)

“The Capitalist Manifesto is a wonderfully timely, entertaining and inspiring defense of free markets and free trade against the current critics in both political parties,” said Hayek Book Prize jury chair John Tierney. “Besides debunking the gloomy myths dominating headlines and politics, Norberg’s rigorous analysis of recent data shows that people are not only healthier and wealthier but also happier in America and other countries enjoying the unprecedented benefits of economic freedom.”

“Hayek is one of the most important thinkers of the modern era and the list of previous winners of the Hayek Book Prize reads like a roll call of the lively minds he saw as vital – those with the ingenuity and imagination to make the building of a free society an intellectual adventure. I couldn’t be prouder – or more grateful – for this recognition,” Johan Norberg remarked.

About the Hayek Lecture and Book Prize  

Political philosopher and Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek, author of groundbreaking works such as The Road to Serfdom and The Constitution of Liberty, was the key figure in the twentieth century revival of classical liberalism. He was also a formative influence on the Manhattan Institute. When our founder, Sir Antony Fisher, asked how best to reverse the erosion of freedom, Hayek advised him not to begin with politics per se but to fight first on the battlefield of ideas. The Hayek Lecture and Prize affirm and celebrate this mission. With its $50,000 purse, it ranks among the world’s most generous honors for books.