Benjamin Anderson

Benjamin McAlester Anderson Jr. (May 1, 1886 – January 19, 1949) was an American economist of the Austrian School.

Early life and education

Benjamin Anderson was born in Columbia, Missouri on May 1, 1886, to Benjamin McLean Anderson, a businessman and politician, and Mary Frances Anderson (née Bowling). When he was sixteen years old, Anderson enrolled in classes at the University of Missouri in his hometown and earned his A.B. in 1906. After receiving his bachelor's degree, Anderson accepted an appointment as professor of political economy and sociology at Missouri Valley College, where he remained for a year before becoming head of the department of political economy and sociology at the State Normal School (later known as Missouri State University) in Springfield, Missouri.

Anderson soon became a degree-seeking student again, this time pursuing his A.M. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He completed his master's degree in 1910 and finished his Ph.D. at Columbia University only a year later. Part of his dissertation was later published as ''Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory, Critical and Constructive''. Thornton, Mark
"Who is Benjamin Anderson?"
''Mises.org''

Career

After earning his doctoral degree, Anderson taught at Columbia University and then Harvard University. During this time, he wrote his ''Value of Money'', a critique of the quantity theory of money. He left Harvard to join New York City's National Bank of Commerce in 1918.

He remained with NBC for only two years, however, before Chase National Bank hired him as an economist and as the new editor of the bank's ''Chase Economic Bulletin''. It was during this time that the scope of Anderson's writing widened to include:

In 1939, Anderson again entered the academic community, this time as a professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He held this position until his death (from a heart attack) at Santa Monica Hospital on January 19, 1949.

Academic influence

Henry Hazlitt, who is often cited as having popularized Austrian economics in the English-speaking world, credits Anderson with acquainting him with the work of Ludwig von Mises and other Austrians. Explains Hazlitt:

According to Mises, Anderson was "one of the outstanding characters in this age of the supremacy of time-servers."

Outside of Austrian circles, though, Anderson's writings encountered a cooler reception from the then-dominant Progressives, who disagreed with his calls for reducing government intervention in the market. According to Henry Hazlitt, Anderson was dismayed by the popular political and theoretical trends that ran counter to the positions that he espoused:

Personal life

Anderson was a skilled chess player and penned the preface to José Raúl Capablanca's ''A Primer of Chess'' (1935).

Publications

* ''Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory Critical and Constructive'' (1911)

''The Value of Money''
(1917)
* ''Effects of the War on Money, Credit and Banking in France and the U.S.'' (1919)

"Cheap Money, Gold, and Federal Reserve Bank Policy"
(1924). ''Chase Economic Bulletin'', Vol. IV, No. 3, August 4, 1924

''Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914–1946''
(1949)

References

External links

* Blanchette, Jude
"Anderson, Hazlitt, and the Quantity Theory of Money"
''Journal of Libertarian Studies''. Vol. 19–1. Winter 2005.
* Ebeling, Richard. . ''Monetary Central Planning and the State''. Future of Freedom Foundation. April 1997.
* University of California
Biographical information on Benjamin Anderson
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Benjamin
1886 births
1949 deaths
Austrian School economists
Economists from Missouri
Columbia University alumni
Columbia University faculty
Harvard University faculty
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
University of Missouri alumni
People from Columbia, Missouri
20th-century American economists