INQUIRIES
hayekprize@manhattan.institute
(212) 599-7000

Hayek Book Prize and Lecture

"Unless we can make the philosophic foundations of a free society once more a living intellectual issue, and its implementation a task which challenges the ingenuity and imagination of our liveliest minds, the prospects of freedom are indeed dark. But if we can regain that belief in the power of ideas which was the mark of liberalism at its best, the battle is not lost . . ." — F.A. Hayek

2025 HAYEK BOOK PRIZE

The Manhattan Institute is proud to present the six books chosen as finalists for this year’s Hayek Book Prize, to be awarded on June 4, 2025:

RECENT HAYEK PRIZE WINNERS

  • 2024: Phil Gramm, John Early, and Robert Ekelund, The Myth of American Inequality
  • 2023: Edward Chancellor, The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest
  • 2022: Joseph Henrich,  The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
  • 2021: Thomas Sowell, Charter Schools and Their Enemies
  • 2020: Alberto Alesina, Carlo Favero, and Francesco Giavazzi, Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn’t

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

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. Our Hayek Lecture and Prize affirm and celebrate this mission.

The Hayek Lecture is delivered by the recipient of the Hayek Prize, which honors the book published within the past two years that best reflects Hayek’s vision of economic and individual liberty. The Hayek Prize, with its $50,000 award, is among the world’s most generous book prizes. It was conceived and funded by Manhattan Institute trustee Tom Smith to recognize the influence of F.A. Hayek and to encourage other scholars to follow his example. The winner of the Hayek Prize is chosen from among the nominations by a selection committee of distinguished economists, journalists, and scholars. Past winners include: William Easterly for The White Man's Burden, Amity Shlaes for The Forgotten Man, Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds for Money, Markets & Sovereignty, Matt Ridley for The Rational Optimist, John Taylor for First Principles, Casey Mulligan for The Redistribution Recession, James Grant for The Forgotten Depression, and, in 2016, Philip Hamburger for Is Administrative Law Unlawful?

Hayek Prize Winners (2005–2019)

  • 2019: Douglas A. Irwin, Clashing over Commerce
  • 2018: John F. Cogan, The High Cost of Good Intentions
  • 2017: Deirdre McCloskey, The Bourgeois Trilogy
  • 2016: Philip Hamburger, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?
  • 2015: James Grant, The Forgotten Depression 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself
  • 2014: Casey Mulligan, The Redistribution Recession: How Labor Market Distortions Contracted the Economy
  • 2013: Yang Jisheng, Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine 1958-1962
  • 2012: John B. Taylor, First Principles: Five Keys to Restoring America's Prosperity
  • 2011: Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
  • 2010: Benn Steil, Manuel Hinds, Money, Markets and Sovereignty
  • 2009: Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
  • 2008: William Easterly, The White Man’s Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
  • 2007: John Tomasi, Liberalism Beyond Justice: Citizens Society and the Boundaries of Political Theory
  • 2006: Lord Robert Skidelsky, The Road from Serfdom: The Economic and Political Consequences of the End of Communism
  • 2005: Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism