Economists who revolutionized macroeconomics

by on August 31, 2005 at 7:50 am in Economics, History | Permalink

This list is from my lecture Monday night:

David Hume: His essay on money, circa 1752, remains one of the best writings on the topic.  Honorable mention goes to Isaac Gervaise, who in 1734 outlined international mechanisms of adjustment.

Adam Smith: Growth is everything, no?

Thomas Malthus: A much underrated macroeconomist.  He grasped aggregate demand, and price-cost margins, not to mention the importance of demographics.

David Ricardo: Not an original macroeconomist, but he showed you could apply the quantity theory of money to the policy issues of the day.

Henry Thornton: Super-smart, he integrated the best of all previous macroeconomics without making an error.  He didn’t have much influence until Wicksell and the Austrians, however.

Knut Wicksell: He showed it was possible to have an integrated analysis of the real and monetary sectors of the economy.  He also anticipated about 90 percent of modern real business cycle theory.

John Maynard Keynes: If you want another perspective on him, read his monetarist Tract on Monetary Reform, or Essays in Biography, both masterpieces.

Milton Friedman: Many of his most important ideas were a resurrection of previous wisdom, most of all from Irving Fisher, but his practical influence has been vast. 

The 1979-1990 Theory Boom: We applied every idea in the toolbox — from game theory to adverse selection to imperfect competition — to macroeconomics.  But who gets the credit?

Next on the horizon: ?????  When it comes to high theory, we live in slow times.

Dark horse pick: Friedrich Hayek (or is it Mises?); even Paul Krugman is borrowing his ideas

Addendum: Wesley Clair Mitchell also deserves mention, and read the second comment below for other names.

donny tedjo August 31, 2005 at 10:06 am

Why you have forged Henry Fords, Ray Croch, Bill GAtes.
They also man who changes the worlds of economicst thinker.

Kurt Schuler August 31, 2005 at 12:52 pm

Thornton’s ideas were far more advanced than those of Ricardo, but I would leave him off the list because he *did not* revolutionize macroeconomics, though he should have. For some reason, Thornton was forgotten after the mid 1800s; his book “An Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain” didn’t get a second printing for more than a century. Wicksell seems to have been unaware of Thornton. The same was the case a generation earlier with Walter Bagehot, who is often considered the father of modern central banking for his book “Lombard Street.” Both might have gotten even further had they known of Thornton’s work.

Somebody else who suffered the same fate as Thornton was John Law. I think he was the first to use “demand” as a term and idea in the sense economists still do today. His good theoretical ideas were discredited by the failure of his “Mississippi scheme,” which caused a wrenching financial crisis.

John Stuart Mill deserves mention as the great synthesizer of economic theory, macroeconomic and microeconomic, as it existed in his time.

Schumpeter definitely deserves mention for his long-lasting influence in stressing the dynamic and unsettling nature of modern capitalism.

The “theory boom” produced no economist who combined depth of technical ideas with the broad vision of a Schumpeter, Keynes, Mises, Hayek, or Friedman. A few have tried to articulate the vision thing, but they do not approach the earlier peaks. The best of the bunch since 1970: Fischer Black?

dsquared September 1, 2005 at 2:49 am

Kuznets and Leontief, for heaven’s sake.

Richard Salsman September 1, 2005 at 3:38 pm

I vote strongly to include Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) who developed, among other things, Say’s Law (precursor to Walrasian General Equilibrium analysis), utility theory (when Smith-Ricardo-Malthus-Mill were clinging to the Labor Theory of Value), entrepreneurial theory (far better than subsequent work by Schumpeter or Kirzner)and imputation theory (that costs are determined by prices, not the other way around). J.B. Say was no mere “popularizer” of Adam Smith’s doctrines, as is commonly claimed; indeed, he rejected many of them. And Say thoroughly decimated Malthus’s inane claims about the causes of recessions. Finally, Say was the ultimate optimist, versus the pessimism (and bad forecasts) of Ricardo, Malthus and Marx, because, as a product of the Enlightenment, he believed in the productive power of reason. I believe Say is the most under-rated political economist in history. Fortunately, there’s been a recent revival of academic interest in Say’s work.

Michael Emmett Brady November 25, 2005 at 2:56 am

Yes.Keynes revolutionized macro and microeconomic theory in chapters 19(appendix to chapter 19),20,and 21 of his General Theory way back in 1936.Unfortunately,the only two mathematically literate macroeconomists at that time were A C Pigou and J M Keynes.Pigou presented what he thought was a general macroeconomic theory ,using rigorous mathematical exposition ,in Part II of his 1933 book, The Theory of Unemployment.The mathematical and theoretical core is contained in Part II,chapters 8-10,pp.86-102.All of Pigou’s conclusions are presented in the form of elasticities.Pigou’s major result is the same result accepted by all classical and neoclassical schools today[monetarist(excluding Brunner and Meltzer),rational expectationist,real business cycle,supplyside,Austrian].Full employment of all resources,including the necessary slack unemployment called frictional and voluntary,occurs if the following labor market equilibrium condition holds:w/p=mpl,where w is the money wage,p is the price level,w/p is the real wage,and mpl is the macroscopic marginal productivity of labor derived from an aggregated neoclassical production function.Given the assumptions made by Pigou,this condition means that the economy is operating at some point on the boundary of the static production possibilities frontier under resource scarcity.On pages 261-262 of the GT,Keynes twice specified the equation that was missing from Pigou’s model-the mpc had to equal 1.If the capital stock was not at an optimal level,then the mpc+mpi had to equal 1.The mpc is the marginal propensity to spend on consumption goods and the mpi is the marginal propensity to spend on investment goods.Given the marginal propensity to save,mps,the neoclassical loanable funds theory can be expressed as mpc+mpi=mpc+mps=1.In chapters 20 and 21,Keynes derives his generalized results and presents them in the form of elasticities.The reason for this is obvious.Keynes wants to allow the technically trained reader of Pigou’s book the opportunity to compare both of their results.One need only simplify the elasticity results.Unfortunately,no economist was able to do this.In chapter 20,the analysis of the commodity and labor markets is presented on pp.282-286(top).In chapter 21,the analysis is again presented ,with the money market added,on p.306.The bond market result automatically follows .Note that Keynes does not reject the quantity theory of money,but presents a generalized version of it. Keynes’s general theory is given by the following generalized optimality condition-w/p=mpl/(mpc+mpi).A set of potential,stable multiple equilibria exists,only one of which is a full employment equilibrium.If the mpc+mpi<1,one of a number of involuntary unemployment equilibria will occur.It is impossible for labor,AS A WHOLE,to reduce or eliminate this type of unemployment by cutting their money wages since this would involve a violation of the necessary first and sufficient(decreasing returns) second order conditions for maximizing expected economic profit derived from a standard optimization problem under the assumption of purely competitive firms-industries.The reason Keynes gives for mpc+mpi usually being less than one is that employer-employee decision making, at both the micro and macro levels,is being undertaken under conditions of uncertainty(which is the same as D.Ellsberg’s ambiguity)and/or ignorance,as opposed to risk or certainty equivalence.If mpc+mpi<1,the economy is operating at some point in the interior of the static production possibilities curve.The standard neoclassical microeconomic results,as presented by Pigou,can only be attained if this uncertainty(ambiguity)and ignorance can be mitigated,reduced,or eliminated.Note that Keynes’s technical definition of Say’s Law is that mpc+mpi=1.Keynes’s brief,introductory comments in chapters 2 and 3,which were only meant to serve as a beginners guide to the GT,which include his literary description of Say’s Law as”Supply creates its own Demand”,has unfortunately been overemphasized by history of thought economists who lack the necessary training in the differential and integral calculus which is a necessary prerequisite for understanding both Pigou’s The Theory of Unemployment and Keynes’s The General Theory .Again,Keynes generalized Say’s Law.He recognized it as a special case.

A. M. C. Waterman May 19, 2006 at 2:43 pm

Malthus is never referred to as ‘Thomas’: he was always called ‘Robert’ by his family (‘Bob’ by his parenmts); signed himself ‘T. Robt Malthus’ and is usually referrred to in the literature as ‘T. R. Malthus’. The case is exactly analagous to J. M. Keynes: always ‘Maynard’, never ‘John’.

æ°´æ— ç—• July 4, 2007 at 2:22 am
hyangel July 11, 2007 at 2:06 am

houyuping 07年7月11日

google排名
google排名
wow gold
wow gold
powerleveling
powerleveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
power leveling
power leveling
wow power level
wow power level
Ddo plat
Ddo plat
FFXI Gil
FFXI Gil
GW Gold
GW Gold
GW Power Leveling
GW Power Leveling
RS Gold
RS Gold

RS Power Leveling
RS Power Leveling
Lotro Gold
Lotro Gold
Lotro Power leveling
Lotro Power leveling
翻译公司
翻译公司
上海翻译公司
上海翻译公司
北京翻译公司
北京翻译公司
监控
è´§æž¶
è´§æž¶
è´§æž¶
涂层测厚仪
涂层测厚仪
翻译公司
仓库
仓库
仓库出租
仓库出租
物流园区
物流园区
红外测温仪
红外测温仪

超声波测厚仪
超声波测厚仪
超声波探伤仪
超声波探伤仪
频闪仪
频闪仪
涂层测厚仪
涂层测厚仪
电火花检测仪
电火花检测仪
google排名
门禁
门禁
门禁系统
门禁系统
搬家
搬家公司
北京搬家公司
光盘制作
光盘印刷
光盘印刷
搬家公司
激光打标机
搬家公司
北京搬家公司
hongkong hotel
hongkong hotel
beijing tour
beijing tour
集团电话
集团电话
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
wow power level
wow power level
china tour
china tour
青春痘
青春痘

摆闸
痤疮
痤疮
色斑
色斑
黄褐斑
黄褐斑
青春痘
青春痘
口腔医生
口腔医生
口腔
口腔
口腔医院
口腔医院
口腔科
口腔科
三星集团电话机
呼叫中心
电话交换机
交换机
呼叫中心
测厚仪
测温仪
停车场
道闸

xdrs July 17, 2007 at 10:56 pm

liying 07年7月18日

google排名
google排名
wow gold
wow gold
wow gold
wow gold
powerleveling
powerleveling
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
world of warcraft powerleveling
world of warcraft powerleveling
world of warcraft power leveling
world of warcraft power leveling
hongkong hotel
hongkong hotel
beijing tour
beijing tour
翻译公司
翻译公司
上海翻译公司
上海翻译公司
门禁
北京翻译公司
北京翻译公司
google排名

超声波探伤仪
超声波探伤仪
物流园区
物流园区
搬家公司
搬家公司
北京搬家公司
搬家
搬家公司
搬家公司
北京搬家公司
北京搬家公司
beijing
beijing
china tour
china tour
great wall
beijing travel
beijing travel
china tour
china tour
网站设计
多媒体
è´§æž¶
è´§æž¶
è´§æž¶
光盘刻录
光盘刻录
光盘制作
光盘制作
光盘印刷
光盘印刷

摆闸
痤疮
痤疮
色斑
色斑
黄褐斑
黄褐斑
青春痘
青春痘
口腔医生
口腔医生
口腔
口腔
口腔医院
口腔医院
口腔科
口腔科
三星集团电话机
呼叫中心
电话交换机
交换机
呼叫中心
测厚仪
测温仪
停车场
道闸

gill July 19, 2007 at 1:31 am

wanyamin 07年7月19日
wow gold
wow gold
powerleveling
powerleveling
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
world of warcraft powerleveling
world of warcraft powerleveling
world of warcraft power leveling
world of warcraft power leveling
cheap wow powerleveling
cheap wow powerleveling
cheap wow power leveling
cheap wow power leveling
beijing tour
beijing tour
beijing
beijing
china tour
china tour
great wall
beijing travel
beijing travel
网站设计
网站设计
多媒体
光盘制作

光盘印刷
光盘印刷
超声波探伤仪
超声波探伤仪
频闪仪
频闪仪
涂层测厚仪
涂层测厚仪
电火花检测仪
电火花检测仪
搬家公司
搬家公司
北京搬家公司
google排名
wow gold
翻译公司
翻译公司
上海翻译公司
上海翻译公司
北京翻译公司
北京翻译公司
è´§æž¶
è´§æž¶
è´§æž¶
猎头
猎头
软件测试工程师
软件测试工程师
软件测试
软件测试
软件测试培训
软件测试培训
仓库

仓库
仓库出租
仓库出租
物流园区
物流园区
痤疮
痤疮
色斑
色斑
黄褐斑
黄褐斑
青春痘
青春痘
三星集团电话机
呼叫中心
电话交换机
交换机
呼叫中心
测厚仪
测温仪
cheap Silkroad gold
cheap Silkroad gold
Silkroad gold
Silkroad gold
Silkroad Online gold
Silkroad Online gold
sro gold
sro gold
Archlord gold
Archlord gold
cheap Archlord gold
cheap Archlord gold
Archlord Online gold
Archlord Online gold
buy cheap Archlord gold
buy cheap Archlord gold
Dofus kamas
Dofus kamas
cheap Dofus kamas
cheap Dofus kamas
Dofus gold
Dofus gold
Dofus money
Dofus money
Rappelz Rupees
Rappelz Rupees
Rappelz gold
Rappelz gold
cheap Rappelz Rupees
cheap Rappelz Rupees

Anonymous October 13, 2008 at 10:32 pm

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: