Milton Friedman (Friedman)

genus. July 31, 1912, Mr..

Memory of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1976.



American economist Milton Friedman was born in Brooklyn (New York). When he was a child, his parents Sarah Ethel (nee Laundau) and Jen Friedman Saul Friedman, immigrants from Eastern Europe, moved to Mr.. Rahuey (New Jersey). His mother worked in a haberdashery shop, and his father, as later recalled, F., "tried unsuccessfully to get results in a bad trading operations'. The family had small and non-regular income and could not break free from poverty. Nevertheless, she did not have to starve, and the family atmosphere was warm and friendly.

At age 16, F. for competitive selection was adopted by Rutgers University with the right to receive partial scholarships. In 1932, Mr.. He was awarded a bachelor's degree as soon as the two disciplines - economics and mathematics. While studying at the University of V. came under the influence of the two assistants: Arthur F. Burns, who later became director of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and Homer Jones, the future credibility of the theory of interest rate. Johns F. required to write thesis in economics and receive recommendations for further specialization in this area in the University of Chicago.

After receiving a master's degree at the University of Chicago in 1933, F. moved for post-graduate training at Columbia University (New York). At the end of 1934. He returned to the University of Chicago, becoming an assistant researcher. The following summer he took part in large-scale research project consumer's budget for the National Committee on Natural Resources, Washington (DC). Co F. with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) began in 1937, when he began working as an assistant to Simon Kuznets.

In 1940. they had finished writing a joint scientific work 'Revenues from independent private practice' ( "Income From Independent Professional Practices"). This work was subsequently lay the basis for the dissertation, for which F. in 1946. was awarded the Columbia University Ph.D. in Economics. However, one of the conclusions of the study, . namely, . that 'medicine offers only limited opportunities to raise incomes of physicians of all specialties, compared with income dentists', . caused so great an objection to the NBER, . that the publication of the book was delayed until the end of the Second World War,
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The formation of F. as an economist can be traced to his first independent steps in the science. His subsequent contributions to the theory and practice of economic science is accompanied by the receipt of unexpected results, . he becomes a productive researcher and a popular writer-economist, . involved in important research, . conducted by government and academic institutions, . directs TN,
. Chicago school economists. Despite the fact that many of his views on economic theory and public policy continue to be controversial, he, as the British economist John Burton, 'provided us a foundation for future research on macroeconomics'.

During the Second World War, F. participates in the development of tax policy on the instructions of the Federal Ministry of Finance and take advantage of your stay in Washington, conducts research at Columbia University on the military statistics. In 1945 ... 1946. He teaches economics at the University of Minnesota. Then F. returned to the University of Chicago and became an assistant professor of economics. With the assistance NBER F. starts lasted many years working on the creation of monetary theory.

In 1950, Mr.. F. as a consultant to implement the 'Marshall Plan', developed by George, K. Marshall and includes the rehabilitation of war-ravaged economies of Western Europe, arriving in Paris, where he became an active advocate of the idea of floating exchange rates. He predicts that fixed exchange rates imposed by the Bretton Woods agreement, ultimately fail, as happened in the early 70-ies. His knowledge in the field of theoretical and practical problems of European economies grew in collaboration with Professor Fulbright (1953) from Cambridge University (England).

Starting to work with C. Kuznets, working closely with economists, Dorothy Brady, Margaret Reid and Rose Director, F. formulated and found practical confirmation of his hypothesis 'permanent income consumption'. In his book 'Theory of functions of consumption' ( "A Theory of the Consumption Function"), published in 1957, F. proved that the concept of John Maynard Keynes, an area of current consumption from current income, will inevitably lead to an erroneous rate. Instead, F. advanced the theory that the consumer does not build its consumer accounts, except for temporary, on current income, relying on the expected or permanent income. While fixed income is not always obvious, it could be calculated by the weighted average of recent cash flow. Specified averaging he called "distributed lag '.

Exploring the vast range of practical data consumption, F. found that the results are not at variance with his theory of permanent income (in 50-ies. Franco Modigliani, presented an alternative, but similar to the approach V. theory of consumption, tied to the life cycle and explains the same economic phenomenon). Derivation of the permanent income played an important role, causing an informed reformulation of the quantity theory of money. In subsequent papers F. show that changes in money demand during the entire history of America is always determined by the changes in permanent income.

The value of the theory F. permanent income is difficult to overestimate. Most subsequent studies of aggregate consumption confirms this theory, as developed by the method of determination and assessment of projected future earnings everywhere aroused keen interest among macroeconomists. Moreover, the most important advances in econometrics for 60-bit and 70-ies. been achieved through statistical methods F., which he used it to estimate permanent income.

Publication in 1963. fundamental work, 'The formation of the monetary system in the United States' ( "A Monetary History of the United States"), written F. in collaboration with a specialist in the field of economic history by Anna J. Schwartz, has highlighted the importance of the theory F. not only in the application sense, but also in the history of money circulation. The authors have collected extensive statistics on the circulation of money since the period of the American Revolution and documentary evidence to prove the full impact of participating in the public circulation of money supply on inflation processes.

The head of a collaborative effort dedicated to the era of the Great Depression of the charges of the Federal Reserve for failing to maintain an adequate level of liquidity to the banking system in U.S.. They are formulated in this chapter the following thought: 'The radical reduction in the money supply - it is indeed tragic, . but a true indication of the power of monetary policy as opposed to the view of Keynes and his supporters to reduce the number of available money in circulation as the weakness of the banking system ',
. Continuing to defend their arguments, F. co-authored with economist David Meyselmenom published in 1963. article criticizing the basic idea of Keynes and his followers. It was shown that nominal consumer spending are determined by money supply rather than the individual articles of the state budget. These considerations formed the basis of t. n. theories of monetary circulation 80-ies.

According to F., 'all a matter of money', because changes in the intensity of growth of nominal income primarily due to changes in monetary growth. The response of the critic views V. and Meyselmena by the neo-Keynesians reflect the main areas of debate the 60's and 70-ies on monetary and fiscal policy, during which, however, had to accept the main proposals of F. quite acceptable and legitimate.

Monetary Economics F. gives a clear idea of the use of economic instruments. Economic models, he believes, should be evaluated on their ability to predict the actual economic outcomes, rather than on their speculation. In addition, simple, based on the use of single equation models of the phenomena occurring in the monetary sphere, is much preferable to the models offered by supporters of Keynes, which is based on a set of equations. Monetary doctrine F. become a viable basis of existing doctrines, despite the excessive allocation of a causal factor - money that could not but arouse some skepticism from a number of researchers.

Achievements F. one way or another connected with his analysis of the shortcomings of the theoretical calculations of Keynes and effective critique of the Phillips curve, which is approximately interprets T. n. natural unemployment. Critical analysis of the phenomena under study allowed F. provide a constant influence on the development of theoretical aspects of economic policy and assessment of the economic factors of unemployment for the periods of growth of inflation and periods of decline in employment of working population. Moreover, . his exhaustive analysis of the role of policies to stabilize the economic situation - and this is particularly evident in his famous analysis of the use of lags in the development of strategies for economic stabilization - demonstrates, . manner and therefore the economic stabilization measures may suddenly have the opposite effect,
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F. was awarded the Nobel Memorial Award in Economics in 1976. 'for his achievements in the field of consumption analysis, monetary history and development of monetary theory, as well as a practical demonstration of the complexity of economic stabilization policies'. In his Nobel lecture, he returned to the subject covered more in 1967. when referring to the American Economic Association, - to deny the comments Keynes relatively stable relationship between the rate of inflation and unemployment. He came to the conclusion that the long interval Phillips curve still shifts upward, subject to the natural growth of unemployment.

In his opinion, the cause of this phenomenon was the adoption of the growth of unemployment as an option instead of increasing its interpretation of the constant numerical constant. For short interval, . his opinion, . inflationary monetary and fiscal policy would only temporarily reduce unemployment, . as workers and corporations out of habit tend to increase the income, . that ultimately can not promote the growth of the price level (and, . respectively, . increased unemployment),
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He showed that under certain conditions increase the slope of the Phillips curve would indeed be a perfectly acceptable explanation of the causes of economic stagflation in the early 70-ies. However, the social price fluctuations of inflation is so high that V. becomes a staunch defender of 'stability' as opposed to 'discretionary STI' monetary policy. Sustainable growth rate on cash transactions could not only lead to stagnation of fluctuations in money supply, but also to an increase in volatility forecasts of business activity in the private sector.

F. earned recognition as an adviser to President Richard M. Nixon, despite his differences with him on the establishment of strict controls on prices and wages in 1971. Views V. the importance of laissez-faire in social policy became widely known thanks to the continuous publications in the area allotted to him in 1966. column Newsweek '( "News-week"), as well as by the earlier publication of the book "Capitalism and Freedom' (" Capitalism and Freedom ", 1962). His popular book, 'Freedom of choice' ( "Free to Choose", 1980) even gave its name to the television screen saver series of interviews conducted by the Social and Economic Affairs.

Many of the proposals, F., such as deregulation in the economy, the introduction of hired military services, the use of t. n. 'negative income tax' (payments from the budget of persons with insufficient income), were put into practice. Other proposals - to provide education on the basis of the guarantee on the subsequent payment, refusal of social security and minimum wage - still encounter serious objections on the part of politicians.

Despite often pasted his political opponents of the label 'conservative', F. is much closer to classical liberalism of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, than to the traditionally conservative wing economic doctrine. He believes that the purported goal is not really disagree with the objectives of modern liberal flow. He said: 'The difference in approach to economic policy, especially for the uninitiated, is derived mainly from the difference projections subsequent economic action, and not because of dissimilarity of the fundamental principles and concepts'. While the awarding of F. Nobel Prize has caused a number of objections on the part of professional economists and those who keenly interested in the economy, the contribution of the winner in the theoretical and applied research has gained wide acceptance. For example, Paul Samuelson called it 'economic economist'.

Returning from the University of Chicago in 1977, F. is senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. For three decades he was an active member of the American Economic Association, whose president he was in 1967.

F. married in 1938, his wife - Rose Director, an economist, and their acquaintance began with a joint scientific work at the University of Chicago. They have a son and daughter.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, F. was awarded the John Bates Clark medal of the American Economic Association (1951) and honorary degrees of many American and foreign universities and colleges.