Lawrence H. White

Lawrence H. White

  • Member, Financial Markets Working Group
  • Professor of Economics, George Mason University

Lawrence H. White is a professor of economics at George Mason University. Prior to position at George Mason, he was the F. A. Hayek Professor of Economic History in the Department of Economics, University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has been a visiting professor at the Queen's School of Management and Economics, Queen's University of Belfast, and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Professor White is the author of The Theory of Monetary Institutions (Blackwell, 1999), Free Banking in Britain (2nd ed., IEA, 1995), and Competition and Currency (NYU Press, 1989). He is the editor of several works, including The History of Gold and Silver (3 vols., Pickering and Chatto, 2000), The Crisis in American Banking (NYU Press, 1993), African Finance: Research and Reform (ICS Press, 1993), and Free Banking (3 vols., Edward Elgar, 1993). His articles on monetary theory and banking history have appeared in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, and other leading professional journals.

Dr. White earned his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his AB from Harvard University.

WORKING PAPERS

Indian Planning and Development Economics image

Indian Planning and Development Economics

(Chapter 10 from The Clash of Economic Ideas)
Lawrence H. White | Aug 31, 2010
India ousted its British colonial rulers in 1947, after decades of struggle led principally by the revered Mohandas Gandhi. Indian economic policies would now be chosen in New Delhi rather than in London. British colonial policies had linked India‘s foreign trade to monopoly privileges and forced transfers of wealth from India toward Britain. In sharp contrast to Adam Smith, who had recommended ending such transfers by instituting free trade between former British colonies and Britain, Gandhi called for ending trade. He favored a form of national self sufficiency for India bordering on autarky. India‘s new government moved away from market-friendly policies. The growth of the Indian economy under Nehru‘s socialism, as we will see, was disappointing. More vigorous growth awaited the liberalization of the economy that began in the 1980s.

The Postwar German “Wonder Economy” and Ordoliberalism image

The Postwar German “Wonder Economy” and Ordoliberalism

(Chapter 9 from The Clash of Economic Ideas)
Lawrence H. White | Aug 23, 2010
The Second World War left Germany’s cities, factories, and railroads in ruins, but by 1958, West Germany’s per capita output had risen three-fold. The country outgrew France and the United Kingdom despite receiving much less Marshall Plan aid. It left East Germany in the dust. This was the era of the Wirtschaftswunder or “wonder economy”. The Ordoliberals focused on finding appropriate “rules of the game” for the market order, asking: what constitutional structure and legal framework best preserves a free society and economy?

The Mont Pelerin Society and the Rebirth of Smithian Economics image

The Mont Pelerin Society and the Rebirth of Smithian Economics

(Chapter 8 from The Clash of Economic Ideas)
Lawrence H. White | Aug 20, 2010
Spontaneous-order economic theories, as developed by Smith, Menger, and Hayek, imply that mutually beneficial trades in decentralized markets, and the institutional patterns that grow from them, help to satisfy people’s aims. It promotes the wealth of nations. On this lesson is founded the practical case for dispersed private property and free competition that members of the Mont Pelerin Society and other market-oriented economists would develop.

MEDIA CLIPPINGS

Reuters

McKinsey shocked by insider-trading allegations

Lawrence H. White | Oct 19, 2009
Lawrence J. White was quoted in a Reuters article about insider-trading allegations brought against McKinsey & Co and the company's use of new investment options to recruit college graduates. "It is like saying it is OK to take advantage of information you are learning," said White, a former regulator. "It may have been too short from…