Robert Wayne Clower (February 13, 1926 – May 2, 2011) was an Americaneconomist. He is credited with having largely created the field ofstock-flow analysis ineconomics and with seminal works on the micro-foundations ofmonetary theory andmacroeconomics.

Clower is credited with having largely created the field ofstock-flow analysis in economics.^[4]

In seminal papers that advanced strongmethodological positions and set an agenda for subsequent research, Clower formalized and reformulated:

• Keynesian theory as disequilibrium analysis in contrast to standardgeneral equilibrium theory, thereby generalizing (or rejecting)Walras' law and standardprice theory. To this end, he proposed the 'dual-decision hypothesis' in which realized transaction quantities affect adjustments in output at other thanfull-employment equilibrium but not at full-employment equilibrium. This, he argued, was implicit in Keynes's work to explain howfull-employment equilibrium is only a special case. Such quantity constraints introduce nonlinearities that complicate dynamic stability of theeconomic system as to full-employment equilibrium and require a distinction betweennotional and effective demand.^[5]
• Monetary theory to incorporate explicitly the difference between amoney economy andbarter economy such that "in sharp contrast with established [microeconomic] theory, money commodities play a peculiar and central role in shaping prevailing forces ofexcess demand." It is here that hiscash-in-advance constraint, now often referred to as theClower constraint was introduced.^[6]

Robert Clower grew up inPullman, Washington, where he was born on February 13, 1926. His father, F.W. Clower, was a professor of economics there atWashington State College. After high-school graduation, he joined the army, serving thirty-one months before returning to the U.S. where he enrolled at Washington State in the summer of 1946. He received a B.A. degree in Economics there in 1948 (highest honors). When his father became ill in 1948, he was tapped to fill in for his father's classes, in which he had been enrolled after intense earlier reading. He was promoted to Associate Professor upon his father's death for completion of the term and demoted to Instructor in the next term. He received an M.A. degree there in 1949.

Clower continued postgraduate work as aRhodes scholar atOxford University. There, he studied underJohn R. Hicks and received aB.Litt. degree in 1952.^[7] On re-examination, he was awarded aDoctor of Letters degree in 1978.^[8]

Subsequent positions as a professor of economics or administrator included:

• Washington State College (later, University), 1952–1957
• University of Punjab, Lahore, West Pakistan, 1954–1956
• Northwestern University, 1958–1971, also department Chairman, 1958–65
• Director, Economic Survey of Liberia, 1961–1962^[9]
• Makerere College, Kampala, Uganda, 1965, Summer
• University of Essex 1965–1966, 1968–1969, the latter also Dean, School of Social Studies
• UCLA, 1971–1986,Professor Emeritus, 1987-2011
• Washington State University, 1978–1980,Adjunct Professor
• University of South Carolina, 1986–2001; Distinguished Professor Emeritus, 2001-.^[10][11]

Other responsibilities included:

• Managing Editor,Economic Inquiry, 1973–1979
• Editor,American Economic Review,1981-85
• President, Western Economic Association,1987^{[permanent dead link]}.
• President, Southern Economic Association,1992-93.^[12]

Clower was aFellow of theEconometric Society.^[13] He died in 2011 atColumbia, South Carolina.^[14]

• Disequilibrium macroeconomics
• Monetary-disequilibrium theory
• Neo-Keynesian economics

• 1954a. "An Investigation into the Dynamics of Investment,"American Economic Review. 44(l), pp.64-81.
• 1954b. "Price Determination in a Stock-Flow Economy" with D. W. Bushaw,Econometrica 22(3), pp.328-343.
• 1957.Introduction to Mathematical Economics, with D.W. Bushaw. Chapter ("Section") and arrow-searchable pagelinks.
• 1960. "On the Invariance of Demand for Cash and Other Assets," with M.L. Burstein,Review of Economic Studies, 28(1), pp.32-36.
• 1964. "Monetary History and Positive Economics,"Journal of Economic History, 24(3), pp.364-380
• 1965. "The Keynesian Counter-Revolution: A Theoretical Appraisal," inF.H. Hahn and F.P.R. Brechling, ed.,The Theory of Interest Rates. Macmillan. Reprinted in Clower, 1987, pp.34-58.
• 1966.Growth without Development: An Economic Survey of Liberia, with George Dalton, Mitchell Harwitz, andAlan A. Walters. Review extracts1 and2.
• 1967. "A Reconsideration of the Microfoundations of Monetary Theory,"Western Economic Journal, 6(1), pp.1-8 (press+).
• 1968. "Stock-flow analysis,"International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, v. 12.
• 1969a. Editor,Monetary Theory: Selected Readings, Hammondsworth, Penguin.
• 1969b. "What Traditional Monetary Theory Really Wasn't,"Canadian Journal of Economics. 2(2), pp.299-302.
• 1973. "Say's Principle: What It Means and Doesn't Mean," with A. Leijonhufvud, Intermountain Economic Review.
• 1975a. "Reflections on the Keynesian Perplex,"Journal of Economics, 35(1), pp.1-25.
• 1975b. "The Coordination of Economic Activities: A Keynesian Perspective," withAxel Leijonhufvud, 1975,American Economic Review. 65(2), pp.182-188^{[permanent dead link]} (press+).
• 1977. "The Anatomy of Monetary Theory,"American Economic Review, 67(1), pp.206-212.WP.Archived 2012-03-01 at theWayback Machine
• 1978. "The Transactions Theory of the Demand for Money: A Reconsideration", withPeter W. Howitt, 86(3), pp.449-466^{[permanent dead link]} (press+).
• 1987.Money and Markets, D.A. Walker, ed. Cambridge.Description and chapter-previewlinks. Reviewextract ofDavid Laidler.
• 1988. "The Ideas of Economists," in A. Klamer, D.N. McCloskey, and R.M. Solow, ed.,The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric, Cambridge. pp.85-98.
• 1989. "How Economists Think,"Business and Economic Review, 36(1), pp. 9–17. Reprinted in 1995c.
• 1994. "Economics as an Inductive Science,"Southern Economic Journal, 60(4), pp.805-814 (press+). Presidential address,SEA.
• 1995a. "Axiomatics in Economics,"Southern Economic Journal, 62(2), pp.307-319(press+).
• 1995b. "On the Origin of Monetary Exchange,"Economic Inquiry, 33(4), pp. 525–36.Abstract andreprint.
• 1995c.Economic Doctrine and Method: Selected Papers of R.W. Clower, Edward Elgar Publishing.Description.
• 1996. "Taking Markets Seriously: Groundwork for a Post-Walrasian Macroeconomics", with P.W. Howitt, in David Colander, ed.,Beyond Microfoundations, pp.21-37.
• 1999. The Emergence of Economic Organization - co-authorPeter Howitt (economist)^[15]
• 1999. "Robert W. Clower," in Brian Snowdon and Howard R. Vane,Conversations with Leading Economists: Interpreting Modern Macroeconomics, ch. 6, pp.177-91.
• 2000. "The Emergence of Economic Organization," withPeter Howitt,Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 41(1), pp.55-84 (select page and press+).

• Robert Clower from theNew SchoolHistory of Economic Thought Website.

• Microeconomists
• American macroeconomists
• Monetary economists
• Historians of economic thought
• Fellows of the Econometric Society
• 1926 births
• 2011 deaths
• People from Pullman, Washington
• Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford
• Economics journal editors
• Economists from Washington (state)
• American Economic Review editors
• Northwestern University faculty
• University of California, Los Angeles faculty
• Washington State University faculty
• University of South Carolina faculty

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