The group also stated that it is "difficult to imagine a society in which freedom may be effectively preserved" without the "diffused power and initiative" associated with "private property and the competitive market" and found it desirable among other things to study the following matters: The first meeting took place in the Hotel du Parc in the Swiss village of Mont Pèlerin, near the city of Vevey, Switzerland.

Funding for the conference came from the William Volker Fund thanks to Harold Luhnow, the Bank of England owing to the help of Alfred Suenson-Taylor, the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York and the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (today known as Credit Suisse), which paid 93 percent of the total conference costs, 18,062.08 Swiss francs.

William Rappard, a Swiss academic, diplomat and founder of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, addressed the society's inaugural meeting. In his "Opening Address to a Conference at Mont Pelerin", Hayek mentioned "two men with whom I had most fully discussed the plan for this meeting both have not lived to see its realisation", namely Henry Simons (who trained Milton Friedman, a future president of the MPS, at the University of Chicago) and John Clapham, a British economic historian.

The MPS aimed to "facilitate an exchange of ideas between like-minded scholars in the hope of strengthening the principles and practice of a free society and to study the workings, virtues, and defects of market-oriented economic systems". The MPS has continued to meet regularly, the General Meeting every two years and the regional meetings annually. The MPS has close ties to the network of think tanks sponsored in part by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.

Influence

Hayek stressed that the society was to be a scholarly community arguing against collectivism while not engaging in public relations or propaganda. The society has become part of an international think tank movement and Hayek used it as a forum to encourage members such as Antony Fisher to pursue the think tank route. Fisher has established the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London during 1955, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York City in 1977 and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in 1981. Now known as the Atlas Network, they support a wide network of think tanks, including the Fraser Institute.

Prominent MPS members who advanced to policy positions included the late Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of West Germany, President Luigi Einaudi of Italy, Chairman Arthur F. Burns of the Federal Reserve Board and Secretary of State George Shultz. Among prominent contemporary political figures, former President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic and acting politicians, such as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe of Sri Lanka, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Geoffrey Howe of the United Kingdom, former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence Antonio Martino, Chilean Finance Minister Carlos Cáceres and former New Zealand Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, are all MPS members. Of 76 economic advisers on Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign staff, 22 were MPS members.

Several leading journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Walter Lippmann, former radical Max Eastman (then roving editor at Reader's Digest), John Chamberlain (former editorial writer for Life magazine), Henry Hazlitt (former financial editor of The New York Times and columnist for Newsweek), John Davenport (holder of editorial posts at Fortune and Barron's) and Felix Morley (Pulitzer Prize-winning editor at The Washington Post), have also been members. Members of the MPS have also been well represented on the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Eight MPS members, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Maurice Allais, James M. Buchanan, Ronald Coase, Gary Becker and Vernon Smith have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Graeme Maxton, and Jørgen Randers note that it is no surprise that so many MPS members have won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences because the MPS helped to create that award, specifically to legitimize free-market economic thinking. In contrast, Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Romer attended a meeting of the MPS and found it "boring and depressing."

In the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, published by Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, MPS was ranked ninth out of 55 for "Best Think Tank Conference".

Past presidents

Numerous notable economic/political theorists have served as president of the MPS:

  • Friedrich Hayek – United Kingdom, 1947–1961
  • Wilhelm Röpke – Switzerland, 1961–1962
  • John Jewkes – United Kingdom, 1962–1964
  • Friedrich A. Lutz – Germany, 1964–1967
  • Bruno Leoni – Italy, 1967–1968
  • Günter Schmölders – Germany, 1968–1970
  • Milton Friedman – United States, 1970–1972
  • Arthur Shenfield – United Kingdom, 1972–1974
  • Gaston Leduc – France, 1974–1976
  • George Stigler – United States, 1976–1978
  • Manuel Ayau – Guatemala, 1978–1980
  • Chiaki Nishiyama – Japan, 1980–1982
  • Lord Harris of High Cross – United Kingdom, 1982–1984
  • James M. Buchanan – United States, 1984–1986
  • Herbert Giersch – Germany, 1986–1988
  • Antonio Martino – Italy, 1988–1990
  • Gary Becker – United States, 1990–1992
  • Max Hartwell – United Kingdom, 1992–1994
  • Pascal Salin – France, 1994–1996
  • Edwin Feulner – United States, 1996–1998
  • Ramón Díaz – Uruguay, 1998–2000
  • Christian Watrin – Germany, 2000–2002
  • Leonard P. Liggio – United States, 2002–2004
  • Victoria Curzon-Price – Switzerland, 2004–2006
  • Greg Lindsay – Australia, 2006–2008
  • Deepak Lal – United States, 2008–2010
  • Kenneth Minogue – United Kingdom, 2010–2012
  • Allan H. Meltzer – United States, 2012–2014
  • Pedro Schwartz – Spain, 2014–2016
  • Peter Boettke – United States, 2016–2018
  • John B. Taylor – United States, 2018–2020
  • Linda Whetstone – United Kingdom, 2020–2021
  • Gabriel Calzada – Spain, 2021–2024

Other notable participants

  • Maurice Allais – French physicist and economist
  • Karl Brandt – German-American agricultural economist
  • Götz Briefs – German economist
  • Ed Crane – Founder, Cato Institute
  • Aaron Director – professor at the University of Chicago Law School
  • Ludwig Erhard – Minister of Economics and Chancellor of postwar West Germany
  • Frank Graham – American economist
  • F. A. Harper – American economist
  • Henry Hazlitt – American journalist
  • Trygve Hoff – Norwegian economist and journalist
  • Bertrand de Jouvenel – French philosopher and political economist
  • Václav Klaus – Czech economist and politician
  • Frank Knight – Chicago school economist
  • Fritz Machlup – Austrian-American economist
  • Salvador de Madariaga – Spanish diplomat and writer
  • Loren Miller – American civic reformer and libertarian activist
  • Ludwig von Mises – Austrian economist
  • Felix Morley – American journalist
  • Michael Polanyi – Hungarian/British chemist, economist and philosopher of science
  • Karl Popper – Austrian/British philosopher
  • William Rappard – American academic and diplomat
  • Leonard Read – American founder of the Foundation for Economic Education
  • Lionel Robbins – British economist
  • Bellikoth Raghunath Shenoy – Indian economist
  • Peter Thiel - German-American entrepreneur
  • Herbert Tingsten – Swedish political scientist and journalist
  • Cicely Wedgwood – British historian

Other noted members

  • Armen Alchian
  • Martin Anderson
  • Stephen J. Blackwood
  • Danny Julian Boggs
  • William F. Buckley Jr.
  • Carlos Cáceres Contreras
  • Steven N. S. Cheung
  • Pierre F. Goodrich
  • Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson
  • George Hilton
  • Enoch Powell
  • Alvin Rabushka
  • Alan Reynolds
  • Leland B. Yeager