Anna J. Schwartz

Anna J. Schwartz
David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Anna J. Schwartz
Birth date	1915-11-11
Birth place	New York City, New York, United States
Death date	2012-06-18
Death place	Washington, D.C., United States
Occupation	Economist, economic historian, statistician
Known for	Work on monetary history, co-authorship of The Monetary History of the United States
Employer	National Bureau of Economic Research; Columbia University

Anna J. Schwartz

Anna J. Schwartz was an American economist and economic historian known for pioneering work in monetary history and empirical analysis. She is best known for co-authoring The Monetary History of the United States with Milton Friedman, and for influential research at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Columbia University. Her scholarship intersected with debates involving monetary policy, banking crises, and macroeconomic stabilization during the 20th century.

Early life and education

Schwartz was born in New York City and raised during the aftermath of World War I and the Roaring Twenties, experiences contemporaneous with figures such as Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and events like the Stock Market crash of 1929. She attended Hunter College High School before matriculating at Barnard College, a liberal arts institution affiliated with Columbia University, where she studied under professors influenced by the work of Irving Fisher and contemporaries in the field including John Maynard Keynes, F. A. Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises. For graduate study she pursued a doctorate at Columbia University in economics, engaging with archival sources and statistical methods developed in the interwar period alongside scholars linked to the National Bureau of Economic Research and the intellectual circle of Alfred Marshall-influenced economists.

Academic and professional career

Schwartz’s professional career was primarily associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and academic appointments at Columbia University and visiting posts tied to institutions such as the Hoover Institution and research centers linked to Harvard University and the University of Chicago. At NBER she joined a cohort including Simon Kuznets, Eugene Fama, Irving Fisher-influenced researchers, and was active during periods when policy debates involved the Federal Reserve System, leaders like Marvin Goodfriend and Paul Volcker, and episodes such as the Great Depression and the Great Recession. Her methodology combined archival work with statistical time-series techniques used by contemporaries such as Milton Friedman, Anna Schwartz’s frequent collaborator, and drew on data series pioneered by institutions like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Major works and contributions

Schwartz’s signature publication, co-authored with Milton Friedman, was The Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, which linked monetary aggregates to macroeconomic outcomes and influenced debates about the causes of the Great Depression, banking panics, and inflation during episodes including the Panic of 1907 and the postwar inflation of the 1970s. Her empirical work advanced the use of monetary aggregates such as M1 money supply and techniques associated with time-series analysis and econometrics practiced by economists like Lawrence Klein and Clive Granger. She produced detailed archival studies of banking crises, drawing on case material comparable to accounts of the Bank of England and episodes like the Free Banking Era in the United States. Her scholarship influenced policy discussions involving the Federal Reserve Board, debates between proponents of monetary rules such as the Taylor rule and advocates of discretionary policy linked to figures like Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan.

Collaborations and influence

Schwartz collaborated most notably with Milton Friedman, a partnership that connected her to networks including the Chicago School of Economics, the University of Chicago, and economists such as George Stigler, Gary Becker, and Robert Lucas Jr.. Her work circulated among policymakers at the Federal Reserve System, international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, and historians at the Library of Congress and the Economic History Association. Influential scholars who engaged her research include Anna Jacobson Schwartz’s contemporaries in monetary studies like Thomas Sargent, John Taylor, and Allan Meltzer, while critics and interlocutors ranged from followers of Keynesian economics such as Paul Samuelson to monetarist skeptics in the tradition of Hyman Minsky.

Awards and honors

Schwartz received recognition from professional bodies including the American Economic Association and honors tied to institutions such as the National Bureau of Economic Research and Columbia University. Her contributions were acknowledged alongside laureates and honorees like Milton Friedman, Robert Mundell, and James Tobin in discussions of monetary history and macroeconomic policy. She was the recipient of fellowships and awards that reflected her standing among historians and economists, and her work is frequently cited in collections and commemorative volumes honoring major figures in 20th-century economic thought.

Category:American economists Category:Women economists Category:Economic historians Category:1915 births Category:2012 deaths