John Maurice Clark (1884–1963) was an American
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
whose work combined the rigor of traditional economic analysis with an
"institutionalist" attitude. Clark was a pioneer in developing the notion of
workable competition and the theoretical basis of modern
Keynesian economics
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
, including the concept of the
economic multiplier
In macroeconomics, a multiplier is a factor of proportionality that measures how much an endogenous variable changes in response to a change in some exogenous variable.
For example, suppose variable ''x''
changes by ''k'' units, which causes ano ...
.
Biography
Early career
John Maurice Clark was born November 30, 1884, in
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571.
Northampton is known as an acade ...
. He studied at
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
, graduating in 1905, and received his Ph.D. from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1910.
[Paul J. Miranti, Jr.]
"Clark, John Maurice (1884–1963)."
In Michael Chatfield
Michael Chatfield (1930s-2004) was an American economist, accounting historian, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the Southern Oregon University, known for his work on the history of accounting and accounting thought, and particularly for hi ...
and Richard Vangermeersch
Richard G.J. Vangermeersch (born 1940) is an American economist, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Rhode Island, particularly known for his ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia,'' edited with Michael Chatf ...
(eds.), ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia.'' New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 125–127.
J.M. Clark was the son of economist
John Bates Clark
John Bates Clark (January 26, 1847 – March 21, 1938) was an American neoclassical economist. He was one of the pioneers of the marginalist revolution and opponent to the Institutionalist school of economics, and spent most of his career as ...
(1847-1938) and shared his father's concern with ethical and policy issues, in keeping with much intellectual thought during the
progressive era
The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
. Father and son worked jointly on rewriting and expanding John Bates Clark's 1912 book ''The Control of Trusts,'' with the new edition seeing publication in 1914. Work upon this theme would be continued by J.M. Clark in his ''Social Control of Business'' (1926, revised in 1939).
Clark was an Instructor at
Colorado College
Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduates at its campus. The college offer ...
from 1908 to 1910 and at Amherst College from 1910 until 1915, when he left to join the faculty of political economy at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. He accepted a professorship at Columbia in 1923, assuming the post previously held there by his father.
He would remain at Columbia for the remaining three decades of his academic life, finally retiring in 1957.
Contributions
Throughout his career Clark was concerned with the dynamics of a
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
.
In his early work ''Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs'' (1923), Clark developed his theory of
the acceleration principle, that investment demand can fluctuate widely when consumer demand fluctuates. In this he anticipated key
Keynesian
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output and ...
theories of investment and
business cycle
Business cycles are intervals of Economic expansion, expansion followed by recession in economic activity. These changes have implications for the welfare of the broad population as well as for private institutions. Typically business cycles are ...
s. Clark also examined the relationship between firm size and production cost, demonstrating the way firms with high fixed costs could dramatically reduce average cost of production by expanding output, thus explaining the price leverage wielded by giant firms in capital-intensive industries.
The work illustrated the critical importance of accurate cost information for those seeking the effective regulation of
monopolistic
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a spec ...
or
oligopolistic
An oligopoly (from Greek ὀλίγος, ''oligos'' "few" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a market structure in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of large sellers or producers. Oligopolies often result fro ...
firms.
Clark's next published work, ''Social Control of Business'' (1926), continued the theme of national economic governance, detailing the institutional, economic, and legal factors that limited social oversight of monopolistic behavior.
Clark argued that accounting provided an essential mechanism for the monitoring of the behavior of economically mighty firms to assure their operation within the limits established by regulation.
In his 1931 book ''The Costs of the World War to the American People,'' Clark first broached the concept of the
economic multiplier
In macroeconomics, a multiplier is a factor of proportionality that measures how much an endogenous variable changes in response to a change in some exogenous variable.
For example, suppose variable ''x''
changes by ''k'' units, which causes ano ...
, the idea that "all expenditures give rise to subsequent income effects and that their aggregated sum can always be expressed as a multiple of the original disbursement." In this work Clark developed the idea of multiplier effects for foreign trade and capital investment in advancing this thesis that the actual cost of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
to the American people substantially exceeded the sum of nominal expenditures by the government upon the war.
Clark expanded upon the consideration of the multiplier effect in public planning in his 1935 book, ''Economics of Planning Public Works.''
[Dorfman, "Some Documentary Notes on the Relations Among J.M. Clark, N.A.L.J. Johannsen and J.M. Keynes," pg. 6.] With America mired in the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and book sales weak, Clark was unable to find a commercial or academic publisher for this work. The National Planning Board of the U.S. Government ultimately published the title via the
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...
.
The opus has since come to be regarded as a classic in its field.
Clark is considered one of the founders of the theory of
workable competition, neither pure competition nor pure monopoly, a neglected
Marshallian insight.
Honors
Clark was President of the
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members.
History and Constitution
The AEA was esta ...
(AEA) in 1935 and was recognized with that organization's highest award, the
Francis A. Walker Medal, in 1952.
["In Memoriam: John Maurice Clark", ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol. 79, no. 3 (Sept. 1964), pg. ???.]
Death
J.M. Clark died on June 27, 1963, aged 78, in
Westport, Connecticut
Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
History
...
.
Footnotes
Works
''Standards of Reasonableness in Local Freight Discriminations.''New York: Columbia University, 1910.
''The Control of Trusts.''Rewritten and enlarged edition, with John Bates Clark. New York: Macmillan, 1914.
* ''Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923.
* ''Social Control of Business.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926.
* ''The Costs of the World War to the American People.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1931.
* ''Strategic Factors in Business Cycles.'' New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1934.
* ''The Economics of Planning Public Works.'' Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1935.
* ''Preface to Social Economics.'' New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936.
* ''An Alternative to Serfdom: Five Lectures Delivered on the William W. Cook Foundation at the University of Michigan, March 1947.'' Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1948.
American edition: 1950.
* ''The Ethical Basis of Economic Freedom.'' Westport, CT: C.K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation, 1955.
* ''Economic Institutions and Human Welfare.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957.
* ''Competition as a Dynamic Process.'' Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1961.
Further reading
* Laurence Shute, ''John Maurice Clark: A Social Economics for the Twenty-First Century.'' London: Macmillan, 1997.
* Charles A. Hickman, ''J. M. Clark.'' New York, Columbia University Press, 1975.
* Joseph Dorfman, ''The Economic Mind in American Civilization.'' Volume 5. New York: The Viking Press, 1959.
* T.W. Hutchison, ''A Review of Economic Doctrines, 1870–1929.'' Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1953.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, John Maurice
1884 births
1963 deaths
Institutional economists
Economists from Massachusetts
People from Northampton, Massachusetts
Amherst College alumni
Columbia University alumni
Columbia University faculty
University of Chicago faculty
Amherst College faculty
Colorado College faculty
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Presidents of the American Economic Association
20th-century American economists
Journal of Political Economy editors