Chicago

Besides Cambridge (UK) and Harvard, the third birthplace of IO was Chicago: in the 1930s and 1940s its main exponents were Simons, Knight, and Jacob Viner. Relative to their time, they were laissez-faire oriented economists, in the sense of being opposed to collectivism and government planning. They considered competition desirable for reasons political and social, not just economic. However, these scholars advocated a positive role for the government, although strictly confined to the preservation of competition conditions in the markets. So at this time it was not just Harvard, but also Chicago that advocated an active antitrust role.