Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Advent of U.S. And NBER Business Cycle Research

Guerard, John B.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-99418-1_2

John B. Guerard²

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Abstract

Business cycles often begin with the work of Mr. Wesley Clair Mitchell, the first Director of Research at the National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER. Mr. Mitchell was elected the NBER

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Notes

1.
The NBER was chartered on December 29, 1919. The National Bureau was formed “to encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the well-being of mankind; and in particular to conduct, or assist in the making of, exact and impartial investigations in the field of economic. Social, and industrial science”. National Bureau Charter and By-Laws. The quote is taken from Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur F. Burns, Editor (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1952), pp. 30–31. Mr. Burns edited a volume shortly after Mr. Mitchell passed on October 29, 1948. Contributors to the volume included Joseph Dorfman, John Maurice Clark, Milton Friedman, Joseph Schumpeter, and Alvin Hansen. A personal sketch was included by his wife, Lucy Spague Mitchell.
2.
Wesley Clair Mitchell, A History of the Greenbacks, with Special References to the Economic Consequences of Their Issue, 1862–1865 (The Decennial Publications of the University of Chicago, 2d. Series, V.9, the University of Chicago Press, 1903). Before we plunge into Mr. Mitchell’s Business Cycles (1913), we should give the reader a slight biographical sketch of Mr. Mitchell. He was born in 1874, in Rushville, Illinois, and entered the University of Chicago, under President Harper at its creation in 1982. Wesley studied with John Dewey and James Laurence Laughlin, the noted “sound money” economist, and by his graduation in 1896, had published two articles on the Quantity Theory of Money in Mr. Laughlin’s Journal of Political Economy, JPE, edited at The University of Chicago. His next several articles were on the history of the Greenbacks during the Civil War and the suspension and resumption of specie payments. His dissertation on the Greenbacks, History of the Legal-Tender Acts, was accepted in 1899 and he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty at Chicago, leaving in 1903 to follow Adolph Miller, one of his teachers at Chicago, to the University of California. It was at California, that he published his A History of the Greenbacks, with Special References to the Economic Consequences of Their Issue, 1862–1865 (1903) and took up his business cycle research. See Arthur F. Burns, “Introductory Sketch”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur Burns, Editor, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. 1952), pp. 7–10, and Frederick C. Mills, “A Professional Sketch”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur Burns, Editor, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. 1952), pp. 107–124. Upon completion of Business Cycles, Mr. Mitchell joined the faculty at Columbia University, in 1913.
3.
Wesley Clair Mitchell, Business Cycles and Their Causes (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963, Fifth printing), p. xi. Mitchell, 1963, is the fifth printing of Wesley Clair Mitchell , Business Cycles and Their Causes, 1941, reprinting of Part III of the original Business Cycles: University of California Press, 1913. The reader seeks to read the original 1913 on the National Bureau of Economic Research website. See Mr. Clark’s discussion of Mr. Mitchell and his “money economy” in John Maurice Clark, “Theory of Business Cycles”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur F. Burns, Editor (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1952), pp. 198–199.
4.
Mr. Mitchell frequently uses business fluctuations in lieu of business cycles. Joseph A. Schumpeter, “The General Economist”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur F. Burns, Editor (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1952), pp. 302–333.
5.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963, p.13.
6.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963, p. 17.
7.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963, p. 20.
8.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 22.
9.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 22.
10.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963, p. 23. See also W. C. Mitchell, “The Prices of American Stocks: 1890–1909”, Journal of Political Economy 18 (1910), 345–380, and his “The Prices of Preferred and Common Stocks, 1890–1909”, Journal of Political Economy 18 (1910), 513–524.
11.
Mitchell Business Cycles, 1963. pp. 25–27.
12.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 50.
13.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 51.
14.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 54.
15.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 63.
16.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 72.
17.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 74.
18.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 75.
19.
Ibid..
20.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 76.
21.
Ibid..
22.
Mitchell Business Cycles, 1963. p. 77. Many economists were writing on business crises during the 1927–1939 period, but the publication date of Business Cycles assures its place in the history of business cycles research. Joseph A. Schumpeter, “The General Economist”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur F. Burns, Editor (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1952), pp. 331–332.
23.
Mitchell Business Cycles, 1963. p. 79. The U.S. population was approximately 96.2 million people in 1907. Its 2020 population is approximately 332.5 million. Thus, a 1907 city of 25,000 would be equivalent to a current city of 86,409. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_in_1907.
24.
The amount of money in circulation did not change (Mitchell, 1941, p. 84).
25.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 87.
26.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 98.
27.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 123.
28.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 126.
29.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 127.
30.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 131.
31.
Mitchel, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 132.
32.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 133. See Mr. Dorfman’s discussion of Mr. Mitchell, his interest in crises and his 1905 course at Columbia on “Economic Crises and Depression”, in Joseph Dorfman, “Professional Sketch”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur F. Burns, Editor (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1952), pp. 130–131.
33.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 136.
34.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 137.
35.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 138.
36.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. pp. 138–139.
37.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 139.
38.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 140.
39.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 143.
40.
Ibid.
41.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 144.
42.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 145.
43.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 146.
44.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 147.
45.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. pp. 156–157.
46.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. p. 158.
47.
Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1963. Pp. 158–161.
48.
Milton Friedman, “The Economic Theorist”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur Burns, Editor, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. 1952), pp. 237–282.
49.
Wesley Clair Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment (NBER, 1923), p. xii.
50.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, pp. xii-xiii.
51.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, p. xv.
52.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, pp. xiv -xvii.
53.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, p. xviii.
54.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, p. xix.
55.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, p. xxiv.
56.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, p. xxvi.
57.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, p. xxviii. Joseph A. Schumpeter, “The General Economist”, in Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Economic Scientist, Arthur F. Burns, Editor (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1952), pp. 324–325.
58.
Mitchell, Business Cycles and Unemployment, 1923, p. xxvi.
59.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles: The Problem and its Setting. National Bureau of Economics Research, 1927.
60.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 1.
61.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 4.
62.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, pp. 5–6.
63.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 7.
64.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, pp. 8–9.
65.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 9.
66.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, pp. 12–32.
67.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, pp. 76–77.
68.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 78.
69.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles,1927, p. 81.
70.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles,1927, p. 102.
71.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 103.
72.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 139.
73.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 145.
74.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 183.
75.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 228.
76.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 280.
77.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 281.
78.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 285.
79.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 287.
80.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 289.
81.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 291.
82.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 294.
83.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 309.
84.
Ibid..
85.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 312. this point will be discussed in Chapter 4, Burns and Mitchell, 1946.
86.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 325.
87.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 337.
88.
Wesley C. Mitchell. Business Cycles, 1927, p. 341.
89.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 345.
90.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 350.
91.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 358.
92.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 376.
93.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 387.
94.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 468.
95.
Ibid..
96.
Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1927, p. 469.

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Guerard, J.B. (2022). Wesley Clair Mitchell: The Advent of U.S. And NBER Business Cycle Research. In: The Leading Economic Indicators and Business Cycles in the United States. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99418-1_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99418-1_2
Published: 07 July 2022
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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