Lawrence Henry White (born November 27, 1954) is an American economics professor at
George Mason University who teaches graduate level
monetary theory and policy. He is considered an authority on the history and theory of
free banking. His writings support the abolition of the
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after ...
and the promotion of private and competitive banking.
Career
White earned his
BA at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
(1977) and
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
at the
University of California at Los Angeles (1982). Before his current role at
George Mason University he held a position as
F. A. Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
Professor of
Economic History with the
University of Missouri–St. Louis
The University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) is a public research university in St. Louis, Missouri. Established in 1963, it is one of four universities in the University of Missouri System and its newest. Located on the former grounds of Belle ...
Economics department from 2000 to 2009, teaching American Economic History, Monetary Theory, and Money and Banking. Previously, he was assistant professor at
New York University and Associate Professor at The
University of Georgia in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
,
Georgia.
[Lawrence H. White Curriculum Vitae](_blank)
Articles by White on monetary theory and banking history have appeared in the
American Economic Review, the
Journal of Economic Literature, the
Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking as well as other professional journals.
[Lawrence H. White faculty page](_blank)
at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University. White is an associate editor of the "Review of Austrian Economics", a contributing editor to the
Foundation for Economic Education's magazine
The Freeman
''The Freeman'' (formerly published as ''The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty'' or ''Ideas on Liberty'') was an American libertarian magazine, formerly published by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). It was founded in 1950 by John Chamberla ...
, and an adjunct scholar of the
Cato Institute.
Economic views
White has been influenced by
George Selgin
George Selgin (; born 1957) is an American economist. He is Senior Fellow and Director Emeritus of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, where he is editor-in-chief of the center's blog, ''Alt-M'', Professor Emeritu ...
and Lawrence H. White
In Defense of Fiduciary Media – or, We are Not Devo(lutionists) We are Miseasians
The Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 9, No. 2, (1996):83–107 . and writes about the
Austrian School of Economics
The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian school ...
and considers himself an "economist who values the Austrian tradition." He has analyzed the theory and history of
free banking, a system under which commercial banks and market forces control the provision of banking services. He supports "depoliticizing the supply of money," considers "free market monetary arrangements" feasible and argues that market monetary institutions "can more credibly be found by contract to perform as desired."
White's ''Free Banking in Britain'' analyzes the efficient systems of free banking in Scotland for 128 years until it was suppressed by the British Parliament which was having problems with its own banking system. The book brought respectability in academic economics to the idea of free banking. However, some supporters of free banking who prefer
commodity backed currency to private
fractional reserve currency disagree with his portrayal of the Scottish banking system as truly free. White has countered their arguments.
However, White does not dismiss the possibility that in a free market people might prefer a commodity standard, such as the
gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from th ...
.
White's 1999 book ''The Theory of Monetary Institutions'' is a theoretical and historical account of both existing and alternative monetary regimes used as an advanced undergraduate and graduate-level economics text. Professor
Steve Hanke writes that "White provides a uniquely insightful perspective into a difficult and controversial area, and his arguments and analysis are unbeatable."
White, who has been a visiting scholar at the
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,
frequently has criticized the
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after ...
. He has written that the economics profession is greatly influenced by the Federal Reserve because of the millions of dollars in research grants it supplies to academics. White has been quoted as saying that nationalized banks "divert money to the most vote-productive uses rather than the most economically productive uses." White's view on the usefulness of transferring digital money via cellphone and on his criticism of
Limited Purpose Banking have been mentioned in mainstream publications.
White received an Honorary Doctoral Degree at
Universidad Francisco Marroquín in 2011 due his research on monetary policy and monetary history.
Honorary Doctoral Degrees, November 2011
at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Books
* ''The Clash of Economic Ideas: The Great Policy Debates and Experiments of the Last Hundred Years'', Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2012,
* ''Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience and Debate 1800–1845, 2nd ed.,'' London: Institute of Economic Affairs
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a right-wing pressure group and think tank registered as a UK charity Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute", and says that it seeks to "further ...
, 2009,
* Editor, ''The pure theory of capital, Volume 12 of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek,'' University of Chicago Press, 2007,
* Editor, ''The History of Gold and Silver, 3 vols.,'' London: Pickering and Chatto, 2000.
* ''The Theory of Monetary Institutions'', Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1999
* Editor, ''The Crisis in American Banking,'' New York: New York University Press, 1993
* Editor, ''Free Banking, 3 vols.,'' Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar, 1993
* Editor, ''African Finance: Research and Reform,'' San Francisco: ICS Press, 1993
* ''Competition and Currency: Essays on Free Banking and Money'', New York: New York University Press, 1992,
* Editor, ''William Leggett, Democratick Editorials: Essays in Jacksonian Political Economy,'' Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1984
References
External links
Lawrence H. White Curriculum Vitae
with full list of publications
White's bio
at the Mercatus Center
Faculty page at the University of Missouri – St. Louis
*
List of published writings
at Cato Institute web site
Audiovisual Media
NewMedia Universidad Francisco Marroquín
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Lawrence H.
Austrian School economists
1954 births
Living people
21st-century American economists
American libertarians
Cato Institute people
George Mason University faculty
Harvard University alumni
New York University faculty
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
University of Georgia faculty
University of Missouri–St. Louis people
Mercatus Center