Which school of economic thought do you prefer?

[muon2]

Econometrics

As a scientist I'm a great fan of econometrics. Philosophically, I'm most comfortable with the way the Chicago school has applied statistical methods to real world problems of the four listed. So I cast my vote that way.

[muon2]

isn't the Chicago school pretty much a variety of the Austrian?

What?  No, not at all, even though they often come to some of the same conclusions in support of minimal government interference.

I thought Hayek was instrumental in developing the Chicago school and the thought of people such as Milton Friedman?

While Hayek represented the moderate wing of the Austrian school, he still was unacceptable to the Chicago school. There's a reason why, when Hayek was invited to teach at the University of Chicago, it was with the Committee on Social Thought, not with the Chicago school of economics. There was a book I read a few years back called Vienna & Chicago which does a decent comparison of the two schools. The Austrian school is the true free market school, while Chicago is far less consistent and principled.

Anyway, though I have my disagreements, the Austrian school certainly makes the most sense among those listed here. Economics is not a science in the way that physics or chemistry are; it should not be treated as if it were.

No, but economics has data from the real world as do physics and chemistry. There are theories in physics that are based largely on a neat set of axioms, yet find no testable conclusions. As pretty as such theories are I'm not a fan of those that resist testing by real data. Similarly, I find that the Austrian school seems to start from a pure axiomatic set of hypotheses and then draws those conclusions that can logically follow. But as with the aforementioned physical theories they fail to test their conclusions against real world data. They seem to expect real data to change to fit their conclusions, instead.