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Victoria Chick | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1936-04-08)8 April 1936 Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Died | 15 January 2023(2023-01-15) (aged 86) London, England |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | John Maynard Keynes,Hyman Minsky |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Macroeconomics andmonetary economics |
| School or tradition | Post Keynesian economics |
| Notable ideas | Post Keynesian economics |
| Website | |
Victoria Chick (April 8, 1936 – January 15, 2023) was apost-Keynesian economist known for her essays on monetary theory, banking and methodology. Her writing on Keynes'sGeneral Theory made her one of the foremost interpreters of his work.[1] After the2008 banking crisis she coined a corollary toGresham's law, arguing that in orthodox economics "bad theory drives out good."[2]
Chick was born inBerkeley, California, in 1936. She had originally planned to study STEM subjects but found that "[science] was so sexist, a woman just could not survive – they hounded you out."[3] Instead she graduated from theUniversity of California, Berkeley, with bachelor's and master's degrees in economics.[4]
Chick wrote her thesis on Canada's experience in the 1950s with flexible exchange rates. As a research student, she was taught byHyman Minsky among others, although her interest inKeynes and hisGeneral Theory developed much later.[5] Minsky "did attempt to teach me theGeneral Theory...but I didn't really see the point at the time," she later said. However, she was "indelibly" impressed by Minsky's "skill at blending theory and institutional facts."[6]
After further study at theLondon School of Economics, in 1963 she secured a post atUniversity College London where she remained for the rest of her career, being appointed to a chair in 1993.[7] At UCL her interests shifted from international economics to monetary theory and macroeconomics. Her first major book,The Theory of Monetary Policy (1973), was a critical evaluation of both the Keynesian and monetarist approaches to macroeconomics that were dominant of the time. In 1971 she was present atJoan Robinson's Ely Lecture to the American Economic Association, titled The Second Crisis in Economics, and at the meeting called by Joan Robinson andPaul Davidson which gave conscious expression to what became the post-Keynesian school of thought.[8]
Chick then returned to The General Theory and wrote a critique of Clower and Leijonhufvud's reappraisal (Leijonhufvud, 1968) of the Economics of Keynes, leading eventually to her magnum opusMacroeconomics After Keynes (1983). In this book she portrayed theKeynesian Revolution as one of method, forced by taking seriously the effects of money, time and uncertainty. Her subsequent work has placed great emphasis on methodology and institutions.
In 1988, withPhilip Arestis, Chick founded the Post Keynesian Economics Study Group (PKSG).[9]
In 2014,Routledge published a two-volumeFestschrift titledMoney, Macroeconomics and Keynes: Essays in Honour of Victoria Chick, Volume 1, andMethodology, Microeconomics and Keynes: Essays in Honour of Victoria Chick, Volume 2, edited by Philip Arestis,Meghnad Desai andSheila Dow.
Chick died inLondon on January 15, 2023, at the age of 86.[10]
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