Font: http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/friedman.htm
Milton Friedman, 1912-
One of the most highly influential economists, political commentators and
essayists of the century, Milton Friedman is perhaps the best known living
economist. An ardent opponent of the Keynesian economics, Friedman led the "Monetarist"
incarnation of the Chicago School
against the Keynesian
orthodoxy in the 1960s and early 1970s. (click here for our Survey of
Monetarism)
Friedman's early contributions include the "Permanent
Income Hypothesis" in consumption (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, and his propositions for a "positivist" methodology in
economics (1953).
Friedman's important criticisms of Keynesian theory began with his attack on
the IS-LM dichotomy in his "restatement"
of the Quantity Theory 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. In his famous presidential address to the American Economic
Association, Friedman (1968) then focused his attention upon the apparent
breakdown of the Phillips Curve relationship in the 1970s, proposing to replace
it with a "Natural
Rate of Unemployment" (NRU) - a concept later formalized in more detail by
the New
Classicals.
Friedman wrote much 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. Friedman won the Nobel Memorial prize
in 1976.
Major Works of Milton Friedman
- "Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk" with L. Savage, 1948,
JPE.
- "A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability", 1948,
AER.
- "Some Comments on the Significance of Labor Unions for Economic Policy",
1951, in D. McC. Wright, editor, The Impact of the Union. New York:
Harcourt Brace.
- "Commodity-Reserve Currency", 1951, JPE
- "The Expected-Utility Hypothesis and the Measurability of Utility", with
L. Savage,
1952, JPE
- "The Methodology of Positive Economics" in Friedman, 1953 (excerpts)
- Essays in Positive Economics, 1953.
- "The Quantity Theory of Money: A restatement", 1956, in Friedman, editor,
Studies in Quantity Theory.
- A Theory of the Consumption Function, 1957.
- "The Supply of Money and Changes in Prices and Output", 1958, in
Relationship of Prices to Economic Stability and Growth.
- A Program for Monetary Stability, 1959.
- "The Demand for Money: Some theoretical and empirical results", 1959,
JPE
- "The Lag in Effect of Monetary Policy", 1961, JPE
- Capitalism and Freedom, 1962.
- "Should There be an Independent Monetary Authority?", in L.B.
Yeager, editor, In Search of a Monetary Constitution
- Inflation: Causes and consequences, 1963.
- A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, with Anna J. Schwartz, 1963.
- "Money and Business Cycles" with A.J. Schwartz, 1963,
REStat.
- "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, REStat
- "Interest Rates and the Demand for Money", 1966, JLawE
- "What Price Guideposts?", in G.P. Schultz, R.Z. Aliber, editors,
Guidelines
- "The Role of Monetary Policy: Presidential Address to AEA", 1968,
AER
- "Money: the Quantity Theory", 1968, IESS
- "The Definition of Money" with Anna J. Schwartz, 1969.
- The Optimum Quantity of Money and Other Essays, 1969
- "Comment on Tobin", 1970, QJE
- Monetary Statistics of the United States: Sources, methods. with
Anna J. Schwartz, 1970.
- "A Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis", 1970, JPE.
- The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory. 1970.
- "A Monetary Theory of National Income", 1971, JPE
- "Comments on the Critics", 1974, in Gordon, Milton Friedman and his
Critics.
- Monetary Correction: A proposal for escalation clauses to reduce the
cost of ending inflation, 1974
- "Comments on Tobin and Buiter", 1976, in J. Stein, editor,
Monetarism.
- "Inflation and
Unemployment: Nobel lecture", 1977, JPE.
- Free to Choose: A personal statement, with Rose Friedman, 1980
- "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: Tactics versus strategy", 1984, in Moore, editor, To
Promote Prosperity.
- "The Case for Overhauling the Federal Reserve", 1985, Challenge
- "Has Government Any Role in Money?" with Anna J. Schwartz, 1986,
JME
- "Quantity Theory of Money", in J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, P. Newman,
editors, The New Palgrave
- "The
Case for Free Trade" with Rose Friedman, 1997, Hoover Digest
- "George J.
Stigler, 1911-1991: Biographical Memoir", 1998, at NAS (pdf version)
- Two Lucky People, with Rose Friedman.
Resources on Milton Friedman
- HET Pages: Monetarism,
Risk
Aversion
- Milton
Friedman Papers at the Hoover Institution.
- Hoover
Institution page on Friedman.
- Autobiography of Friedman at Nobel site.
- Press release of Nobel award (1976).
- "Milton
Friedman's Surprising Secret", Boston Globe, 1992
- "Labels
and Substance: Friedman's Restatement of the Quantity Theory" by Daniel J.
Hammond, 1999, HOPE
- "Review
of Hammond's Theory and Measurement" by A. Hirsch, 1999,
HOPE
- "Friedman
and the Walrasian Equations of the Natural-Rate Counter-Revolution" by
Robert Leeson.
- "Early
Patinkin-Friedman Correspondence" by Robert Leeson.
- "Patinkin,
Johnson and 'The Shadow of Friedman'" by Robert Leeson.
- "The
Chicago Counter-Revolution and the Sociology of Economic Knowledge" by
Robert Leeson.
- "Is Milton
Friedman a Keynesian?" by Roger W. Garrison, 1992, in Skousen, ed.
Dissent on Keynes
- "Friedman's
"Plucking" Model" by Roger W. Garrison, 1996, Econ Inquiry
- The Milton and Rose Friedman
Foundation for Educational Choice
- Free to
Choose (audio and video streams) - Milton Friedman's 1980 PBS
Television Show at Idea Channel
- Idea Channel's Page of Web Links on Milton
Friedman
- Region's interview with Friedman.
- Reason's interview with Friedman.
- Interview
with Friedman in Hoover Digest
- Reviews of "Two Lucky People" (1999) by National
Review,
Fortune, Economist
- Biography
of Friedman.
- Friedman Page at
Laura Forgette
- Milton
Friedman at Univ. Marburg
- Friedman
Page at Britannica.com
- Friedman
page at Britannica Guide to the Nobel Prizes
- Friedman Page at
Nobel Prize Internet Archive
- Friedman page at
PEI
- Friedman at
Bartleby
- Money as Value Page on
Friedman.
- The Milton Friedman
Ring (!) - various resources.
- "Free to Choose" - PBS
Series at Idea Channel.
- Personal Tribute to
Friedman by Michael Hodges.
- Personal
Tribute by Garret Christensen
- (Not Very Nice) Personal Opinion
of Milton Friedman by Pierre Rinfret
- Milton Friedman receives a coconut-creme pie in the face from the Biotic
Baking Brigade -
image, press
release