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 and the promotion of private and competitive banking.Richard M. Ebeling, Book review , Freedom Daily, November 2001.
Career White earned his BA at Harvard University (1977) and PhD 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 Professor of Economic History with the University of Missouri–St. Louis 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, Georgia.Lawrence H. White Curriculum Vitae
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 at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University. White is an associate editor of the "Review of Austrian Economics",Review of Austrian Economics Editorial Board a contributing editor to the Foundation for Economic Education's magazine The Freeman, and an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute.Lawrence H. White faculty page , George Mason University.
Economic views White has been influenced byGeorge Selgin 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 and considers himself an "economist who values the Austrian tradition."Lawrence H. White, "The Research Program of Austrian Economics," in Roger Koppl, Explorations in Austrian Economics, Volume 11 of Advances in Austrian economics, Emerald Group Publishing, 2008 p. 12, Lawrence H. White, The Methodology of the Austrian School Economists , Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1988. 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.Lawrence H. White, Competitive Money, Inside and Out , Cato Institute Journal 3, Spring 1983, 281–99. 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."Lawrence H. White, "Depoliticizing the Supply of Money," in Thomas D. Willett, Political business cycles: the political economy of money, inflation, and unemployment, Duke Press Policy Studies, Duke University Press, 1988, p. 460,
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.Peter Brimelow, Ron Paul's Competing Currencies, Lew Rockwell.com, January 29, 2008. 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.Larry J. Sechrest, Whites Free-Banking Thesis: A Case of Mistaken Identity, The Review of Austrian Economics.Murray N. Rothbard, The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland , The Review of Austrian Economics. 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.Lawrence H. White, "Free Banking and the Gold Standard," in Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., The Gold Standard: Perspectives in the Austrian School, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1992, pp. 113–128, .
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."The Theory of Monetary Institutions information page at the University of Missouri–St. Louis web site.
White, who has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, frequently has criticized the Federal Reserve System.See several articles at Lawrence H. White page at Cato Institute website and White letter on the Federal Reserve , July 22, 2009. 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.Thomas E. Woods, Jr, The Federal Reserve's Death Rattle?, Lew Rockwell.com, September 28, 2009.Lawrence H. White, "The Federal Reserve's Influence on Research in Monetary Economics", Econ Journal Watch, 2005. White has been quoted as saying that nationalized banks "divert money to the most vote-productive uses rather than the most economically productive uses."A profoundly bad idea, you can bank on it , Orange County Register editorial, January 27, 2009. White's view on the usefulness of transferring digital money via cellphoneClaire Cain Miller, At Checkout, More Ways to Avoid Cash or Plastic, New York Times, November 15, 2009 and on his criticism of Limited Purpose Banking have been mentioned in mainstream publications.Jerry O'Driscoll, Can we reinvent the banking industry?, Christian Science Monitor, October 6, 2010.
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 Editor, The Clash of Economic Ideas: The Great Policy Debates and Experiments of the Last Hundred Years, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2012, Editor, 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