Henry Calvert Simons
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Henry Calvert Simons (1899-1946) was an American economist at the University of Chicago. His laissez-faire and monetarist models influenced the Chicago School.
Simons is noted for a definition of economic income, developed in common with Robert M. Haig, known as the Haig-Simons equation; this definition of income has strongly influenced the modern American tax structure.
In one of his better known essays, A Positive Program for Laissez Faire (1934) Simons set out a program of reform to bring private enterprise back to life during the Great Depression.
"Eliminate all forms of monopolistic market power, to include the breakup of large oligopolistic corporations and application of anti-trust laws to labor unions. A Federal incorporation law could be used to limit corporation size and where technology required giant firms for reasons of low cost production the Federal government should own and operate them... Promote economic stability by reform of the monetary system and establishment of stable rules for monetary policy... Reform the tax system and promote equity through income tax... Abolish all tariffs... Limit waste by restricting advertising and other wasteful merchandising practices."
[edit] References
- Friedman, Milton. "The Monetary Theory and Policy of Henry Simons," Journal of Law and Economics Vol. 10 (Oct., 1967), pp. 1-13 JSTOR
- Kasper, Sherryl. The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: A Case Study of Its Pioneers (2002), ch 3
- Oakeshott, Michael. The Political Economy of Freedom, in: Cambridge Journal, Volume II, 1949; now in: Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962), Indianapolis, Liberty Fund, 1991 (New and expanded edition), pp. 384-406.
- Stein, Herbert. “Simons, Henry Calvert," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics (1987), v. 4, pp.332-35
