Anna Schwartz

Anna Schwartz
David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Anna Schwartz
Birth date	1915-11-11
Birth place	New York City
Death date	2012-06-13
Death place	Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Economist
Known for	Monetary history research
Notable works	The Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960

Anna Schwartz was an American economist renowned for her empirical research on monetary history and her collaboration with Milton Friedman. Her archival scholarship reshaped debates about nineteenth- and twentieth-century financial crises, central banking policy, and monetary aggregates, influencing scholars at institutions such as the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the University of Chicago. Schwartz combined data compilation with policy critique, contributing to discussions at the intersection of historical documentation and macroeconomic theory.

Early life and education

Schwartz was born in New York City in 1915 and grew up amid the intellectual milieus of Brooklyn and Manhattan. She completed undergraduate work at Barnard College and pursued graduate studies at Columbia University, affiliating with research programs linked to the National Bureau of Economic Research and scholars associated with Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. During this formative period she encountered archival collections from the New York Public Library and the National Archives, which later informed her empirical approach to monetary history.

Career and contributions

Schwartz's professional career included positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and later roles collaborating with economists at the University of Chicago, the Brookings Institution, and the Institute for New Economic Thinking. She served as a research associate and compiled extensive statistical series on bank reserves, currency, and credit flows, often using primary sources from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Treasury Department, and regional Federal Reserve archival holdings. Her meticulous data reconstruction informed policy debates in venues such as testimony before the United States Congress and reports circulated among policymakers at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Schwartz contributed to the historiography of financial panics, tracing links between banking crises and monetary policy responses during episodes like the Panic of 1907 and the Great Depression. Her empirical findings were cited in analyses produced by scholars at the American Economic Association, the Econometric Society, and policy units within the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Collaboration with Milton Friedman

Schwartz's collaboration with Milton Friedman began through mutual contacts at the University of Chicago and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Together they produced influential work arguing that variations in the monetary base and bank reserves played a decisive role in business cycle fluctuations and in the depth of the Great Depression. Their joint scholarship culminated in long-term projects that combined archival research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Library of Congress with theoretical frameworks associated with scholars at the Chicago School of Economics.

The pair engaged with contemporaneous debates involving figures such as John Maynard Keynes, Ben Bernanke, and Hyman Minsky, positioning monetary aggregates as central variables in macroeconomic stabilization. Their exchanges influenced policymaking circles connected to the Treasury Department and academic forums hosted by the American Philosophical Society.

Major works and economic theories

Schwartz coauthored The Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960 with Milton Friedman, a landmark study that presented exhaustive statistical series on currency, bank reserves, and monetary policy actions spanning nearly a century. She published monographs and articles in journals associated with the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, addressing episodes such as the Panic of 1819 (in comparative perspective), the banking disturbances of the late nineteenth century, and postwar monetary developments linked to the Bretton Woods Conference.

Her work emphasized empirical reconstruction of monetary data, critique of central bank interventions, and the role of credit and liquidity in propagating financial distress—positions that engaged critics from schools associated with Keynesian economics, proponents at the International Monetary Fund, and revisionist historians at the Cambridge University Press. Schwartz advocated that reliable statistical foundations are essential for testing macroeconomic propositions and for informing institutions such as the Federal Reserve System and the Congressional Budget Office.

Awards and honors

Schwartz received recognition from scholarly organizations including honors from the National Bureau of Economic Research and citations in proceedings of the American Economic Association. Her contributions were acknowledged in dedicated symposia at the University of Chicago and at anniversaries hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. She was the subject of festschrifts and received medals and awards from learned societies such as the Economic History Association and the American Philosophical Society.

Personal life and legacy

Schwartz lived in New York City and later in Washington, D.C., remaining active in archival work, seminars, and public commentary into her later years. Colleagues at the University of Chicago, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Federal Reserve remembered her for rigorous data work that shaped subsequent generations of monetary historians, including researchers affiliated with the Institute for New Economic Thinking, the Bank for International Settlements, and the International Monetary Fund. Her legacy endures in graduate curricula at institutions like Columbia University, archival projects at the Library of Congress, and ongoing debates within journals such as the Journal of Economic History and the American Economic Review.

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