The role of financial policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 446-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger E.A. Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Financial Markets ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Central Banking ◽  
Financial Policy ◽  
American Economic Association ◽  
General Equilibrium Theory ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
Monetary Rules

I review the contribution and influence of Milton Friedman's 1968 presidential address to the American Economic Association. I argue that Friedman's influence on the practice of central banking was profound and that his arguments in favour of monetary rules were responsible for 30 years of low and stable inflation in the period from 1979 through 2009. I present a critique of Friedman's position that market economies are self-stabilizing and I describe an alternative reconciliation of Keynesian economics with Walrasian general equilibrium theory from that which is widely accepted today by most neoclassical economists. My interpretation implies that government should intervene actively in financial markets to stabilize economic activity.

scholarly journals The wrong track also leads someplace: Milton Friedman's presidential address at 50

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Servaas Storm
Keyword(s):  
Phillips Curve ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Aggregate Demand ◽  
Financial Fragility ◽  
American Economic Association ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do So

Milton Friedman's presidential address to the American Economic Association holds a mythical status as the harbinger of the supply-side counter-revolution in macroeconomics – centred on the rejection of the long-run Phillips-curve inflation–unemployment trade-off. Friedman (seconded by Edmund Phelps) argued that the long run is determined by ‘structural’ forces, not demand, and his view swept the profession and dominated academic economics and macro policymaking for four decades. Friedman, tragically, put macroeconomics on the wrong track which led to disaster: secular stagnation, rising inequality, mounting indebtedness, financial fragility, a banking catastrophe and recession – and no free lunches. This is Friedman's legacy. We have to unlearn the wrong lessons and return macroeconomics to the right track. To do so, this paper shows that Friedman's (and Phelps's) conclusions break down in a general model of the long run in which productivity growth is endogenous – aggregate demand is driving everything again, short and long.

Women in the Early Years of the American Economic Association

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-702
Author(s):  
Ann Mari May ◽  
Robert W. Dimand
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Home Economics ◽  
Early Years ◽  
American Economic Association ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
Early Essay ◽  
Social Causes

We use the archives of the American Economic Association to examine the participation of women in the association from its foundation in 1885 to the Great Depression. Women participated actively in the formation of the association, contributed several monographs to its early publications, and won some of its early essay competitions. We find that the membership drives of 1900–1902 (aimed at academics and businessmen) and of 1909–13 (aimed at lawyers, bankers, and businessmen) neglected women interested in social causes and home economics as potential members. Together with the abolition of local branches, these first two membership drives diluted the role of women in the association. In contrast, the membership drive of 1922–26 reflected a growing interest in graduate students and young instructors that somewhat increased the proportion of women among members.

scholarly journals A NEGLECTED INCONSISTENCY IN MILTON FRIEDMAN’S AEA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Forder
Keyword(s):  
Phillips Curve ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Economic Association ◽  
Milton Friedman ◽  
Economic Association

Milton Friedman (1968)—his famous Presidential Address to the American Economic Association—contains an elementary error right at the heart of what is usually supposed to be the paper’s crucial argument. That is the argument to the effect that during an inflation, changing expectations shift the Phillips curve. It is suggested that the fact of this mistake and of its having gone all but unnoticed are points of historical interest. Further reflections, drawing on the arguments of Forder (2014), Macroeconomics and the Phillips Curve Myth, are suggested.

FDI and economic activity in Africa: The role of local financial markets

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles. K. D. Adjasi ◽  
Joshua Abor ◽  
Kofi A. Osei ◽  
Ernestine E. Nyavor-Foli
Keyword(s):  
Financial Markets ◽  
Economic Activity

scholarly journals Reflections of 25 Years of CSWEP: Resolution Adopted by the American Economic Association on December 29, 1971

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 175-176
Keyword(s):  
American Economic Association ◽  
25Th Anniversary ◽  
Milton Friedman ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
The Status ◽  
Status Of Women

The Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Here, we republish the text of the resolution that created CSWEP, along with comments on the role of CSWEP in the economics profession from Robin L. Bartlett, Barbara R. Bergmann, Carolyn Shaw Bell, and Milton Friedman.

scholarly journals Explaining the fame of Friedman’s Presidential Address

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1683-1700 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Forder ◽  
Kardin Sømme
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Economic Association ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
Terminological Confusion ◽  
Do So

AbstractIt is noted that although in fact it lacks the revolutionary content commonly ascribed to it, Friedman’s Presidential Address to the American Economic Association is very highly regarded as an original and formative contribution. It is argued that close attention to the literature shows that it was not initially seen as original, and only after an interval of five years did the idea of its revolutionary status retrospectively, but suddenly become widely accepted. The explanation of this change of view is considered. Four explanations are suggested: one involving terminological confusion, one involving a change in theoretical priorities, and two involving debates of the 1970s, which, although they did not in fact do so, appeared to build on Friedman’s presentation, and by this appearance gave it an undeserved stature.

scholarly journals Distinguished Fellow: Honoring Roy Radner

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-194
Author(s):  
Frank Hahn
Keyword(s):  
General Equilibrium ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Rational Expectations ◽  
Equilibrium Theory ◽  
American Economic Association ◽  
General Equilibrium Theory ◽  
Rational Expectations Equilibrium ◽  
Turnpike Theorem ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
Game Theoretic

Roy Radner has been elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. To illustrate the Radner style, I have chosen the example of his turnpike theorem, even though this is not quite illustrative of his central concerns. I shall follow this with a brief survey of his contributions to general equilibrium theory and the theory of rational expectations equilibrium. I shall then turn to his work on teams, and conclude with one of his more game-theoretic studies of organizations and private information.

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