On the Origins of "A Monetary History"

Rockoff, Hugh

On the Origins of "A Monetary History"

No 12666, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper explores some of the scholarship that influenced Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz's "A Monetary History". It shows that the ideas of several Chicago economists -- Henry Schultz, Henry Simons, Lloyd Mints, and Jacob Viner -- left clear marks. It argues, however, that the most important influence may have been Wesley Clair Mitchell and his classic book "Business Cycles" (1913). Mitchell, and the NBER, provided the methodology for "A Monetary History", in particular the emphasis on compiling long time series of monthly data and analyzing the effects of specific variables on the business cycle. A common methodology and the stability of monetary relationships produced similar conclusions about money. Friedman and Schwartz deemphasized Mitchell's "bank-centric" view of the monetary transmission process, but they reinforced Mitchell's conclusion that money had an independent, predictable, and important influence on the business cycle.

JEL-codes: B22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-mon
Note: DAE ME EFG
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Ross B. Emmett, ed., The Elgar companion to the Chicago school of economics. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2010, 81-113

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Chapter: On the Origins of A Monetary History (2010)
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