Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0

Author-Name: Katalin Botos
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Szeged, Pazmany Peter Catholic University
Author-Email: evmkabor@gmail.com


Title: What Can Posterity Learn from Irving Fisher?

Abstract: This essay draws attention to some of the important aspects of, and learnings from,
Irving Fisher's work. Fisher was the first economist to subject big volumes of data
to analysis. He was one of the founders and first president of the Econometric
Society. His name is associated with the quantity theory of money. He researched the
purchasing power of money, index numbers, created the so-called Fisher index, wrote
about the theory of interest rates, economic cycles, dwelled upon debt deflation and
the theory of the Great Depression. He was one of the first advocates of abandoning
the gold standard. He also drew attention to the psychological motives of the
behaviours of economic actors, so the theories of Thalerian behavioural economics
can regard him as their predecessor. His insight was used in managing the financial
crisis of 2008. The steps towards reforming bank regulation can specifically be
regarded as such measures, while Modern Monetary Theory stretched back as far
as his thoughts on the regulation of the creation of money, i.e. the Chicago plan.

Classification-JEL: E31, E32, B31, C58, D91, G28, E12, B52
Keywords: history of theory, crisis theory, deflation, behavioural economics, financial markets, regulation policy, modern monetary theory
Pages: 175-187
Volume: 21
Issue: 2
Year: 2022
File-URL: https://en-hitelintezetiszemle.mnb.hu/letoltes/fer-21-2-e1-botos.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:mnb:finrev:v:21:y:2022:i:2:p:175-187