Washington - US economist Milton Friedman, a leading advocate for laissez-faire economics, died at the age of 94 Thursday, a spokesman for his private foundation said Thursday.
The Nobel Prize winner passed away from heart failure in San Francisco, Robert Fanger, the spokesman for the Milton Milton & Rose D Friedman Foundation Indianapolis, said.
Friedman is one of the 20th century's most prominent economists and a strong believer in free markets and small government. Friedman advised several US presidents and influenced Ronald Reagan's vast tax cuts.
Friedman, a son of Jewish immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, won the Nobel Prize in 1976 for his macro-economic theories and also advised former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during her privatisation policies in the 1980s.
Friedman authorized more than a dozen books, including "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960." His work was credited with helping Chile defeat inflation in the 1970s and 1980s.
Friedman was born in New York. When his father died, the gifted student had to get to a job to support his family.
Friedman is survived by his wife and two children.