William D. Grampp (August 22, 1914 – August 30, 2019) 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 ...

Academic career

In 1944 he was awarded his PhD in economics from 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 ...

. His dissertation was titled “Mercantilism and Laissez Faire in American Political Discussion”. He worked as a journalist before joining the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, where he taught from 1947 to 1980. In 1980 he became professor emeritus and also a visiting professor of social science at the University of Chicago. In 1994 he was appointed lecturer at the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...

.K. E. Carpenter and L. S. Moss, ‘The craft of William D. Grampp: historian of economics’, in Steven G. Medema and Warren J. Samuels (eds.), ''Historians of Economics and Economic Thought'' (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 93–94. He analysed

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...

in a two-volume work published in 1965. He argued that economic liberalism was not synonymous with ''

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...

''; in British classical liberal thought the "government may do whatever it can do that the people will have it do", whereas the

utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...

liberal believed that the "government may do whatever it can do that people have it do ''or can be made to believe it should do''". Grampp also asserted that the impact of utilitarianism transformed classical liberalism into modern liberalism, such as that seen in 1960s America.Carpenter and Moss, p. 100. In his 1989 work, ''Pricing the Priceless: Art, Artists and Economics'', Grampp adhered to the

rational choice theory Rational choice theory refers to a set of guidelines that help understand economic and social behaviour. The theory originated in the eighteenth century and can be traced back to political economist and philosopher, Adam Smith. The theory postula ...

to explain behavior.

Works

Books

*''The Manchester School of Economics'' (Stanford University Press, 1960). *''Economic Liberalism, Volume I: The Beginnings'' (New York: Random House, 1965). *''Economic Liberalism, Volume II: The Classical View'' (New York: Random House, 1965). *''Pricing the Priceless: Art, Artists and Economists'' (New York: Basic Books, 1989).

Articles

*‘Everyman His Own Jeffersonian’, ''The Sewanee Review'', Vol. 52, No. 1 (Winter, 1944), pp. 118–126. *‘The Third Century of Mercantilism’, ''Southern Economic Journal'', Vol. 10, No. 4 (Apr., 1944), pp. 292–302. *‘John Taylor: Economist of Southern Agrarianism’, ''Southern Economic Journal'', Vol. 11, No. 3 (Jan., 1945), pp. 255–268. *‘A Re-Examination of Jeffersonian Economics’, ''Southern Economic Journal'', Vol. 12, No. 3 (Jan., 1946), pp. 263–282. *‘The Italian Lira, 1938-45’, ''Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 54, No. 4 (Aug., 1946), pp. 309–333. *‘The Grammar of Reconstruction’, ''The Antioch Review'', Vol. 6, No. 3 (Autumn, 1946), pp. 341–353. *‘The Political Economy of Poor Richard’, ''Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 55, No. 2 (Apr., 1947), pp. 132–141. *‘Some Problems for Planners’, ''The Antioch Review'', Vol. 7, No. 3 (Autumn, 1947), pp. 451–452. *‘Adam Smith and the Economic Man’, ''Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 56, No. 4 (Aug., 1948), pp. 315–336. *‘On the Politics of the Classical Economists’, ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'', Vol. 62, No. 5 (Nov., 1948), pp. 714–747. *‘Some Effects of Rent Control’, ''Southern Economic Journal'', Vol. 16, No. 4 (Apr., 1950), pp. 425–447. *‘Autobiography of an Economic Man’, ''The Antioch Review'', Vol. 10, No. 3 (Autumn, 1950), pp. 359–366. *‘The Moral Hero and the Economic Man’, ''Ethics'', Vol. 61, No. 2 (Jan., 1951), pp. 136–150. *‘The Economics of "Yes, But"’, ''The Antioch Review'', Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring, 1951), pp. 85-94. *‘Discussion’, ''The American Economic Review'', Vol. 41, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Sixty-third Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1951), pp. 583–585. *‘The Liberal Elements in English Mercantilism’, ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'', Vol. 66, No. 4 (Nov., 1952), pp. 465–501. *‘A Standard of Occupational Equivalence for Academic Salaries’, ''Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors'', Vol. 40, No. 1 (Spring, 1954), pp. 18–35. *‘Malthus on Money Wages and Welfare’, ''The American Economic Review'', Vol. 46, No. 5 (Dec., 1956), pp. 924–936. *‘International Politics and Dollar Policy’, ''Challenge'', Vol. 13, No. 3 (FEB. 1965), pp. 20–23, 34. *‘On the History of Thought and Policy’, ''The American Economic Review'', Vol. 55, No. 1/2 (Mar. 1, 1965), pp. 128–135. *‘On Manufacturing and Development’, ''Economic Development and Cultural Change'', Vol. 18, No. 3 (Apr., 1970), pp. 451–463. *‘Robbins on the History of Development Theory’, ''Economic Development and Cultural Change'', Vol. 20, No. 3 (Apr., 1972), pp. 539–553. *‘Scots, Jews, and Subversives Among the Dismal Scientists’, ''The Journal of Economic History'', Vol. 36, No. 3 (Sep., 1976), pp. 543–571. *‘A Sketch of Prescriptive Government’, ''Journal of Economic Issues'', Vol. 11, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 73–81. *‘The Economists and the Combination Laws’, ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'', Vol. 93, No. 4 (Nov., 1979), pp. 501–522. *‘The Classical Economics of the Pre-Classical Economists’, ''Eastern Economic Journal'', Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 125–131. *‘Economists and Politicians: Some Cautionary History’, ''Review of Social Economy'', Vol. 40, No. 1 (April, 1982), pp. 13–29. *‘Britain and Free Trade: In Whose Interest?’, ''Public Choice'', Vol. 55, No. 3 (1987), pp. 245–256. *‘How Britain Turned to Free Trade’, ''The Business History Review'', Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 86–112. *‘Rent-Seeking in Arts Policy’, ''Public Choice'', Vol. 60, No. 2 (1989), pp. 113–121. *‘Introductory Remarks to 'Are Museums Betraying the Public's Trust?'’, ''Journal of Cultural Economics'', Vol. 19, No. 1 (1995), pp. 69–70. *‘What Did Smith Mean by the Invisible Hand?’, ''Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 108, No. 3 (June 2000), pp. 441–465.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grampp, William D. 1914 births 2019 deaths American economists University of Chicago alumni University of Illinois faculty University of Chicago Law School faculty