Symposium on the Monetary Macroeconomics of John R. Commons

Abstract:

This essay introduces a five-article symposium on the monetary macroeconomics of John R. Commons. The articles, first delivered as papers at the annual meeting of the Japan Association for Evolutionary Economics in early 2019, demonstrate the vibrance of contemporary institutionalist research on Commons and highlight his contributions to money and business cycles.

Keywords::

• John R. Commons
• monetary macroeconomics
• business cycles

JEL Classification Codes::

• B310
• B520
• E320
• E520
• G200

Notes

1 As will be discussed later in this introduction, Commons actually wrote on monetary macroeconomics, in unpublished essays, at the start of his career (in the 1890s).

2 Although Commons often focused on price level stabilization and expressed concerns about excessive inflation as well as deflation, Kitagawa's contribution to this symposium finds that Commons did not mention the need to avoid such inflation when writing in 1934, in the midst of the deflationary Great Depression.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles J. Whalen

Charles Whalen is a research fellow at the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, SUNY Buffalo School of Law. Linda Whalen provided helpful suggestions on this introduction.