Lawrence H. White
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[edit] Basic Biography
Lawrence H. White, PhD is the F.A. Hayek Professor of Economic History with the University of Missouri - St. Louis Economics department. He has held this position since August 2000 and teaches classes on American Economic History, Monetary Theory, and Money and Banking. Before coming to UMSL He held positions as Assistant Professor at New York University and Associate Professor at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA. He is noted for contributing to the body of thought known as the Austrian School. He has analyzed the theory and history of Free Banking, a system of monetary laissez faire. He and his co-Author George Selgin have written extensively on this subject and are regarded as among the foremost experts in this area.
Dr. White's account of competitive currency issue in Scotland details history's best case for why there should be private issue of currency. The successful history of the Scottish system contradicts the presumption that banking regulation should be considered a public good. White's analysis implies that modern banking systems could function without a central bank, for example the Federal Reserve system of the United States.
[edit] The Theory of Monetary Institutions
Dr. White's most recent book, The Theory of Monetary Institutions, lays out in detail a graduate course in monetary theory. This analysis, in the tradition of Walter Bagehot's Lombard Street, starts by outlining specific assumptions of Monetary Theory. For example, it considers 5 characteristic roles of a central bank and examines which roles have been provided by the private market during the course of history. The later part of the book talks about the many issues which have been raised by government participation in the banking industry. In this perspective, many of the problems of modern macroeconomic theory can be understood as arising from the basic tension between market and government.
[edit] Education
- PhD at University of California at Los Angeles (1982)
- AB at Harvard University (1977)
[edit] Books
- ISBN 0-631-21214-0 The Theory of Monetary Institutions (1999)
- ISBN 0-255-36375-3 Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience and Debate 1800-1845 (1995)
- ISBN 0-8147-9247-2 Competition and Currency: Essays on Free Banking and Money (1989)
