TheBirmingham School was aschool of economic thought that emerged inBirmingham,England during thepost-Napoleonic depression that affected England following the end of theNapoleonic Wars in 1815.
Arguing anunderconsumptionist theory – attributing the depression to the fall in demand due to the end of the wars and end of war mobilization – Birmingham School economists opposed thegold standard and advocated the use of anexpansionary monetary policy to achievefull employment.
The leading thinker and spokesman for the Birmingham School was the bankerThomas Attwood. Other notable figures includedGeorge Frederick Muntz and Thomas Attwood's brotherMatthias Attwood. Economists who lent the Birmingham School some support includedArthur Young,Patrick Colquhoun andSir John Sinclair.[1]
Dismissed at the time as "currency cranks" or "crudeinflationists", the theories of the Birmingham School are now recognized as embryonic versions of theKeynesian economics of the 1930s.[2] Some of Attwood's writings contain formulations of themultiplier effect and anincome-expenditure model.[3] In his 1954History of Economic Analysis,Joseph Schumpeter wrote that "it is from these writings that any study of modern ideas on monetary management ought to start".[4]
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