Milton Friedman

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Milton Friedman (1912-2006) [1] was an American economist and political theorist who became a leader of American Conservatism in its libertarian aspects and was one of the most highly influential economists, political commentators and essayists of the century. Friedman was laureated with the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1976 (alias Nobel Prize in Economics) [2] "for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy". A highly proficient statistician, theorist, and public communicator, he rejected key elements of Keynesian economics, promoted his own "monetarist" [3] theories of macroeconomics, which was at the height of its influence on economy policy-making in the late 1970s and early 1980s and, although it has waned considerably since, many aspects of its influence still remain in the modern policy-making. Friedman preached vigorously the ideological doctrine that market solutions are better than government solutions. Friedman and George J. Stigler [4] led what would become known as the "Second" Chicago School [5], which is perhaps the most famous and polemical one. Stigler and Friedman were avowed Marshallians, and eschewed the methodology of the now-departed Walrasians of the Cowles Commission. The Stigler-Friedman period at the University of Chicago was characterized by faithful adherence to Neoclassical economics and maintained itself dead against the concept of market failures, reinforcing the Chicago School [5] stance against imperfect competition and Keynesian economics. Through their influential journals -- notably, the Journal of Political Economy and the Journal of Law and Economics -- the research program of the Chicago School was advanced and diffused. Friedman had great influence on numerous governments, especially in the 1980s on Ronald Reagan in the U.S. and Margaret Thatcher in Britain.[6], inspring the neoliberal political policies which became know as Reganism and Thatcherism

Friedman's contributions to Economics

Friedman's early contributions to Economics include the "Permanent Income Hypothesis" [7] (1957), his formulation of risk-aversion and risk-proclivity (1948, with L.J. Savage), his use of evolutionary theory in the theory of the firm [8], and his propositions for a "positivist" methodology in economics (1953).

Friedman's criticisms of Keynesian theory began with his attack on the Hicks-Hansen IS-LM Model [9] dichotomy in his "restatement" of the Quantity Theory [10] in 1956 -- effectively, reminding Keynesians that "money matters". This was followed up by a massive historical study with Anna J. Schwartz on the Monetary History of the United States (1963) - leading to a famous debate on money-income causality [11]. In his famous presidential address to the American Economic Association, Friedman (1968) then focused his attention upon the apparent breakdown of the Phillips Curve [12] relationship in the 1970s, proposing to replace it with a "Natural Rate of Unemployment" (NRU) [13] - a concept later formalized in more detail by the New Classicals [14]

Friedman wrote on various aspects of economic policy. In general, he argued that government discretionary "fine-tuning" of the economy, as had been proposed by Keynesians, ought to be replaced with iron "rules" of policy - notably his famous "money supply growth" rule. He also wrote several popular volumes advocating laissez-faire policies more generally.

Bibliography

Books and articles for general audiences

  • Roofs or Ceilings?: The Current Housing Problem with George J. Stigler. (Foundation for Economic Education, 1946), 22 pp. attacks rent control
  • Capitalism and Freedom (1962) online edition; his most influential work
  • Social Security: Universal or Selective? with Wilbur J. Cohen, (1972)
  • There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (1975), columns from Newsweek magazine online version
  • Free to Choose: A personal statement, with Rose Friedman, (1980)
  • "The Case for Overhauling the Federal Reserve, 1985, Challenge magazine article
  • The Essence of Friedman, essays edited by Kurt R. Leube, (1987)
  • Economic Freedom, Human Freedom, Political Freedom ISBN 1-883969-00-X (1992), short pamphlet
  • "The Drug War as a Socialist Enterprise," in Arnold S. Trebach, ed. Friedman and Szasz on Liberty and Drugs: Essays on the Free Market and Prohibition (Drug Policy Foundation Press: 1992)
  • Two Lucky People: Memoirs (with Rose Friedman) (1998)
  • George Stigler: A Personal Reminiscence, Journal of Political Economy Vol. 101, No. 5 (Oct., 1993), pp. 768-773 JSTOR
  • George J. Stigler, 1911-1991: Biographical Memoir, (National Academy of Sciences: 1998), online
  • Money Mischief: Episodes in Monetary History (1994) 286 pp.
  • "The Case for Free Trade" with Rose Friedman, 1997, Hoover Digest magazine article
  • "Reflections on A Monetary History," The Cato Journal, Vol. 23, 2004, essay
  • J. Daniel Hammond and Claire H. Hammond, ed., Making Chicago Price Theory: Friedman-Stigler Correspondence, 1945-1957. Routledge, 2006. 165 pp.
  • "Why Money Matters," Wall Street Journal, Nov. 17, 2006, p. A20

Scientific books and articles

  • "Professor Pigou's Method for Measuring Elasticities of Demand From Budgetary Data" The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 50, No. 1 (Nov., 1935), pp. 151-163 JSTOR
  • "Marginal Utility of Money and Elasticities of Demand," The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 50, No. 3 (May, 1936), pp. 532-533 JSTOR
  • "The Use of Ranks to Avoid the Assumption of Normality Implicit in the Analysis of Variance," Journal of the American Statistical Association Vol. 32, No. 200 (Dec., 1937), pp. 675-701 JSTOR
  • "The Inflationary Gap: II. Discussion of the Inflationary Gap," American Economic Review Vol. 32, No. 2, Part 1 (Jun., 1942), pp. 314-320 JSTOR
  • "The Spendings Tax as a Wartime Fiscal Measure," American Economic Review Vol. 33, No. 1, Part 1 (Mar., 1943), pp. 50-62 JSTOR
  • Taxing to Prevent Inflation: Techniques for Estimating Revenue Requirements (Columbia U.P. 1943, 236pp) with Carl Shoup and Ruth P. Mack
  • Income from Independent Professional Practice with Simon Kuznets (1945), Friedman's PhD thesis
  • "Lange on Price Flexibility and Employment: A Methodological Criticism," American Economic Review Vol. 36, No. 4 (Sep., 1946), pp. 613-631 JSTOR
  • "Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk" with Leonard Savage, 1948, Journal of Political Economy Vol. 56, No. 4 (Aug., 1948), pp. 279-304 JSTOR
  • "A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability", 1948, American Economic Review, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jun., 1948), pp. 245-264 JSTOR
  • "A Fiscal and Monetary Framework for Economic Stability," Econometrica Vol. 17, Supplement: Report of the Washington Meeting (Jul., 1949), pp. 330-332 JSTOR
  • "The Marshallian Demand Curve," The Journal of Political Economy Vol. 57, No. 6 (Dec., 1949), pp. 463-495 JSTOR
  • "Wesley C. Mitchell as an Economic Theorist," The Journal of Political Economy Vol. 58, No. 6 (Dec., 1950), pp. 465-493 JSTOR
  • "Some Comments on the Significance of Labor Unions for Economic Policy", 1951, in D. McC. Wright, editor, The Impact of the Union.
  • "Commodity-Reserve Currency," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 59, No. 3 (Jun., 1951), pp. 203-232 JSTOR
  • "Price, Income, and Monetary Changes in Three Wartime Periods," American Economic Review Vol. 42, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1952), pp. 612-625 JSTOR
  • "The Expected-Utility Hypothesis and the Measurability of Utility", with Leonard Savage, 1952, Journal of Political Economy Vol. 60, No. 6 (Dec., 1952), pp. 463-474 JSTOR
  • The Methodology of Positive Economics (1953)
  • Essays in Positive Economics (1953)
  • "Choice, Chance, and the Personal Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 61, No. 4 (Aug., 1953), pp. 277-290 JSTOR
  • "The Quantity Theory of Money: A restatement", 1956, in Friedman, editor, Studies in Quantity Theory.
  • A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957)
  • "A Statistical Illusion in Judging Keynesian Models" with Gary S. Becker, Journal of Political Economy Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb., 1957), pp. 64-75 JSTOR
  • "The Supply of Money and Changes in Prices and Output", 1958, in Relationship of Prices to Economic Stability and Growth.
  • "The Demand for Money: Some Theoretical and Empirical Results," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 67, No. 4 (Aug., 1959), pp. 327-351 JSTOR
  • A Program for Monetary Stability (Fordham University Press, 1960) 110 pp online version
  • "Monetary Data and National Income Estimates," Economic Development and Cultural Change Vol. 9, No. 3, (Apr., 1961), pp. 267-286 JSTOR
  • "The Lag in Effect of Monetary Policy," Journal of Political EconomyVol. 69, No. 5 (Oct., 1961), pp. 447-466 JSTOR
  • Price Theory ISBN 0-202-06074-8 (1962), college textbook online version
  • "The Interpolation of Time Series by Related Series," Journal of the American Statistical Association Vol. 57, No. 300 (Dec., 1962), pp. 729-757 JSTOR
  • "Should There be an Independent Monetary Authority?", in L.B. Yeager, editor, In Search of a Monetary Constitution
  • Inflation: Causes and consequences, 1963.
  • "Money and Business Cycles," The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 45, No. 1, Part 2, Supplement (Feb., 1963), pp. 32-64 JSTOR
  • A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, with Anna J. Schwartz, 1963; part 3 reprinted as The Great Contraction
  • "Money and Business Cycles" with A. J. Schwartz, 1963, Review of Economics & Statistics.
  • "The Relative Stability of Monetary Velocity and the Investment Multiplier in the United States, 1898-1958", with D. Meiselman, 1963, in Stabilization Policies.
  • "A Reply to Donald Hester", with D. Meiselman, 1964
  • "Reply to Ando and Modigliani and to DePrano and Mayer," with David Meiselman. American Economic Review Vol. 55, No. 4 (Sep., 1965), pp. 753-785 JSTOR
  • "Interest Rates and the Demand for Money," Journal of Law and Economics Vol. 9 (Oct., 1966), pp. 71-85 JSTOR
  • The Balance of Payments: Free Versus Fixed Exchange Rates with Robert V. Roosa (1967)]
  • "The Monetary Theory and Policy of Henry Simons," Journal of Law and Economics Vol. 10 (Oct., 1967), pp. 1-13 JSTOR
  • "What Price Guideposts?", in G.P. Schultz, R.Z. Aliber, editors, Guidelines
  • "The Role of Monetary Policy." American Economic Review, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Mar., 1968), pp. 1-17 JSTOR presidential address to American Economics Association
  • "Money: the Quantity Theory", 1968, IESS
  • "The Definition of Money: Net Wealth and Neutrality as Criteria" with Anna J. Schwartz, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Vol. 1, No. 1 (Feb., 1969), pp. 1-14 JSTOR
  • 'Monetary vs. Fiscal Policy with Walter W. Heller (1969)
  • "Comment on Tobin", 1970, Quarterly Journal of Economics
  • "Monetary Statistics of the United States: Sources, methods. with Anna J. Schwartz, 1970.
  • "A Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 78, No. 2 (Mar., 1970), pp. 193-238 JSTOR
  • The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory 1970.
  • "A Monetary Theory of National Income", 1971, Journal of Political Economy
  • "Government Revenue from Inflation," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 79, No. 4 (Jul., 1971), pp. 846-856 JSTOR
  • "Have Monetary Policies Failed?" American Economic Review Vol. 62, No. 1/2 (1972), pp. 11-18 JSTOR
  • "Comments on the Critics," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 80, No. 5 (Sep., 1972), pp. 906-950 JSTOR
  • "Comments on the Critics", 1974, in Gordon, ed. Milton Friedman and his Critics.
  • "Monetary Correction: A proposal for escalation clauses to reduce the cost of ending inflation", 1974
  • The Optimum Quantity of Money: And Other Essays (1976) online version
  • Milton Friedman in Australia, 1975 (1975)
  • Milton Friedman's Monetary Framework: A Debate with His Critics (1975)
  • "Comments on Tobin and Buiter", 1976, in J. Stein, editor, Monetarism.
  • "Inflation and Unemployment: Nobel lecture", 1977, Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 85, pp. 451-72. JSTOR
  • "Interrelations between the United States and the United Kingdom, 1873-1975.", with A.J. Schwartz, 1982, J Int Money and Finance
  • Monetary Trends in the United States and the United Kingdom: Their relations to income, prices and interest rates, 1876-1975. with Anna J. Schwartz, 1982
  • "Monetary Policy: Theory and Practice," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Vol. 14, No. 1 (Feb., 1982), pp. 98-118 JSTOR
  • "Monetary Policy: Tactics versus strategy", 1984, in Moore, editor, To Promote Prosperity.
  • “Lessons from the 1979-1982 Monetary Policy Experiment, ” Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association. pp. 397-401. (1984).
  • "Has Government Any Role in Money?" with Anna J. Schwartz, 1986, JME
  • "Quantity Theory of Money", in J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, P. Newman, eds., The New Palgrave (1998)
  • "Money and the Stock Market," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 96, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 221-245 JSTOR
  • "Bimetallism Revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 85-104 JSTOR
  • "The Crime of 1873," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 98, No. 6 (Dec., 1990), pp. 1159-1194 JSTOR
  • "Franklin D. Roosevelt, Silver, and China," Journal of Political Economy Vol. 100, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 62-83 JSTOR

About Friedman

  • Milton Friedman - The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1976 - Autobiography
  • Chao, Hsiang-ke. "Milton Friedman and the Emergence of the Permanent Income Hypothesis" History of Political Economy 2003 35(1): 77-104. ISSN 0018-2702 Fulltext in Project Muse
  • A.W. Bob Coats; "The Legacy of Milton Friedman as Teacher" Economic Record, Vol. 77, 2001
  • Doherty, Brian. Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement (2007)
  • Ebenstein, Lanny. Milton Friedman: A Life (2007), full-scale biography, 186pp.
  • Frazer, William. Power and Ideas: Milton Friedman and the Big U-Turn. Vol. 1: The Background. Vol. 2: The U-Turn. Gainesville, Fla.: Gulf/Atlantic, 1988. 867 pp.
  • Hammond, J. Daniel. "Remembering Economics" Journal of the History of Economic Thought 2003 25(2): 133-143. ISSN 1042-7716; focus is on Friedman
  • Hirsch, Abraham, and Neil de Marchi. Milton Friedman: Economics in Theory and Practice (1990) his methodology
  • Jordan, Jerry L., Allan H. Meltzer, Thomas J. Sargent and Anna J. Schwartz; "Milton, Money, and Mischief: Symposium and Articles in Honor of Milton Friedman's 80th Birthday" Economic Inquiry. Volume: 31. Issue: 2. 1993. pp 197+. in JSTOR
  • Kasper, Sherryl. The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: A Case Study of Its Pioneers (2002)
  • Krugman, Paul. "Who Was Milton Friedman?" New York Review of Books Vol 54#2 Feb. 15, 2007 online version
  • Leeson, Robert, ed. Ideology and International Economy: The Decline and Fall of Bretton Woods (2003)
  • Powell, Jim. The Triumph of Liberty (New York: Free Press, 2000). See profile of Friedman in the chapter "Inflation and Depression."
  • Rayack; Elton. Not So Free to Choose: The Political Economy of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan Praeger, 1987; attacks Friedman's policies from the left online version
  • Steindl, Frank G. "Friedman and Money in the 1930s" History of Political Economy 2004 36(3): 521-531. ISSN 0018-2702 lecture notes from his 1940 course show he did not criticize the Fed at that time, and did not emphasize money.
  • Tavlas, George S. "Retrospectives: Was the Monetarist Tradition Invented?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 1998 12(4): 211-222. ISSN 0895-3309 Fulltext in JSTOR
  • Stigler, George Joseph. Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist (1988), autobiography of Friedman's closest friend
  • Wahid, Abu N. M. ed; Frontiers of Economics: Nobel Laureates of the Twentieth Century. Greenwood Press. 2002 pp 109-15.
  • Walters, Alan. “Friedman, Milton," New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, (1987) 2:422-26

References

  1. ↑ Milton Friedman, 1912-2006 at History of Economic Thought - HET]
  2. ↑ Milton Friedman Nobel Prize 1976
  3. ↑ Monetarist Economic Policy
  4. ↑ George J. Stigler, 1911-1991
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Chicago School]
  6. ↑ Ebenstein (2007) is the only full-length biography, but see also Friedman and Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs (1998)
  7. ↑ Integrating the Keynesian Relationships in consumption.
  8. ↑ The Maximization Debates
  9. ↑ The Hicks-Hansen IS-LM Model
  10. ↑ The Monetarist Transmission Mechanism]
  11. ↑ The Money-Income Causality Debate
  12. ↑ Phillips Curve
  13. ↑ The Inflation Acceleration Controversy
  14. ↑ New Classical Macroeconomics.]
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