Merrill Mason Gaffney (October 18, 1923 – July 16, 2020) was an American economist and a major critic of

Neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a good ...

from a Georgist point of view. Gaffney first read

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

's masterwork ''

Progress and Poverty ''Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy'' is an 1879 book by social theorist and economist Henry George. It is a treatise on the questions of why pover ...

'' as a high school junior. This interest led him to Harvard in 1941 but, unimpressed with their approach to economics he left in 1942 to join the war effort. After serving in the

southwest Pacific The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he earned his B.A. in 1948 from

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in Portland,

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. In 1956 he gained a Ph.D. in economics at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. There he addressed his teachers' skepticism about Georgism with a dissertation entitled "Land Speculation as an Obstacle to Ideal Allocation of Land." Gaffney was Professor of Economics at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

from 1976 onwards. He died in July 2020 at the age of 96.

Career

Gaffney was a professor of economics at several universities; a journalist with ''

TIME, Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

''; a researcher with

Resources for the Future Resources for the Future (RFF) is an American nonprofit organization, founded in 1952 that conducts independent research into environmental, energy, and natural resource issues, primarily via economics and other social sciences. Headquartered in ...

; the head of the

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Institute for Economic Policy Analysis, which he founded; an economic consultant to several businesses and government agencies; and a frequent speaker on economic topics, domestic and foreign, and in political campaigns. He was elected as a Director of Robert Schalkenbach Foundation in 1984. Gaffney had a wide and varied professional career. His professional positions included: *

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

1953-54 Instructor * North Carolina State University 1954-1958 Assistant Professor *

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, 1958-62 Associate Professor and Professor of Agricultural Economics *

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

1962-1969 Professor of Economics; department chair 1963-1965 *

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

1967- Visiting Professor of Economics * Resources for the Future, Washington, DC 1969-1973 Senior Research Associate * British Columbia Institute for Economic Policy Analysis, Victoria, B.C., 1973-1976 Founder and Director *

1976-2012 Professor of Economics, teaching both Managerial Economics in the (Graduate School of Administration) and Economics.

Publications

Gaffney published many books and articles on public finance, land use, economics, taxation, and public policy. These include: * Gaffney, M. Mason. ''Concepts of financial maturity of timber and other assets.'' (Raleigh: North Carolina State College, 1957). * LAND: A Special Issue (of House and Home Magazine) * Gaffney, Mason. ''Extractive Resources and Taxation: Proceedings'' (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967) (some pages available on Dr. Gaffney'
personal site
* Gaffney, Mason; Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources.; Alaska Legislature Interim Committee on Oil and Gas Taxation and Leasing Policy. ''Oil and gas leasing policy: alternatives for Alaska in 1977: a report''. (1977) * * Gaffney, M. (1997)
What price water marketing?: California's new frontier
''The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 56,'' 475-520. * Gaffney, M., Harrison, F., & Feder, K.
The Corruption of Economics
'' (London: Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd., 1994) (hardback), (paperback). In this book, Gaffney shows how

was designed and promoted by landowners and their hired economists to divert attention from George's extremely popular insight that since land and resources are provided by nature, and their value is given by society, they - rather than labor or capital - should provide the tax base to fund government and its expenditures. * Gaffney, Mason.
After the Crash: Designing A Depression Free Economy
'' (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell (Publishers), 2009) (hardback), (paperback). This anthology of papers and essays by Gaffney provides a detailed explanation for the business cycle through a synthesis of Georgist, Austrian, and other schools of economic thought. It is both a pointed critique of Neoclassical economics and a prescription for a financial sector that is self-correcting, rather than crisis-prone. Includes introduction by editor Clifford Cobb. Available through the Robert Schalkenback Foundation in
HardCover
' and
Paperback
''.

References

External links

Mason Gaffney's personal site
Contains a biography, bibliography and many essays, articles and chapters for free download.
Site for Mason Gaffney's book ''After the Crash''
An anthology of works related to capital and business cycles. Includes some other papers and articles for free download reproduced elsewhere.
Remembering Dr. Mason Gaffney
A tribute to Dr Gaffney and a link to a more detailed biography. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaffney, Mason 1923 births 2020 deaths American economics writers American male non-fiction writers Economists from California Economists from New York (state) Georgist economists Military personnel from New York (state) Reed College alumni University of California, Riverside faculty