David Israel Meiselman (1924-2014) was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1961. His thesis “The Term Structure of Interest Rates” won the Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Series Award.
“Interview of David Meiselman conducted by Robert L. Hetzel (March 28, 1995)” can be downloaded from the Robert Hetzel Oral History Collection at the FRASER website.
Following the Virginian House Resolution in his honor, the reading list for the graduate money course taught by assistant professor David Meiselman from the Autumn quarter of 1961 can be found. Milton Friedman’s reading list for the same course in 1963 has been posted earlier.
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STATE OF VIRGINIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 294
Offered February 24, 2015
Celebrating the life of David I. Meiselman.
2015 SESSION
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Patron––Rust
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WHEREAS, David I. Meiselman of Fairfax County, a distinguished economist and retired professor in the graduate economics program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a highly regarded teacher and researcher, a veteran of the United States military, and a devoted husband and father, died on December 3, 2014; and
WHEREAS, after serving in the United States Army during World War II, David Meiselman received a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, David Meiselman’s doctoral thesis, “The Term Structure of Interest Rates,” won a prize from the Ford Foundation and was instrumental in the creation of futures markets and other financial concepts that today are in wide use; and
WHEREAS, David Meiselman conducted pioneering research in many different economic disciplines and on public policy issues; he taught at the University of Chicago, the Johns Hopkins University, Macalester College, and the University of Minnesota; and
WHEREAS, David Meiselman was the author of five books and more than 100 articles; he had wide-ranging interests in economic policies and issues, and his work has been cited in many academic and research publications; and
WHEREAS, in 1971, David Meiselman moved to Merrybrook in Fairfax County; he helped build Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s graduate level economics program in Northern Virginia; in all, he taught in the Commonwealth for more than 25 years; and
WHEREAS, during an outstanding career, David Meiselman was a senior economist for the United States Treasury, the United States House of Representatives, and the Organization of American States and served as a visiting scholar and later senior economist in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; and
WHEREAS, David Meiselman worked at several research and educational institutions, including the Manhattan Institute, where he was a founder and member of the board of directors, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute; and
WHEREAS, in great demand for his expertise and insight, David Meiselman was a consultant to the United States Secretary of the Treasury, the World Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, and other government agencies and private companies; and
WHEREAS, in retirement, David Meiselman and his wife, Winifred, spent much time working to preserve their antebellum home, Merrybrook, near Herndon, which is a historic Civil War site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; and
WHEREAS, in addition to his wife, Winifred, David Meiselman will be greatly missed and fondly remembered by his children, Shmuel “Sam,” Ellen, and Nina, and their families, and by many other family members and friends; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Delegates hereby note with great sadness the loss of David I. Meiselman of Fairfax County, a distinguished economist and retired professor in the graduate economics program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a highly regarded teacher and researcher, a veteran of the United States military, and a devoted husband and father; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of David I. Meiselman as an expression of the House of Delegates’ respect for his memory.
Source: https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?151+ful+HR294+pdf
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ECONOMICS 331 — MONEY
Autumn, 1961
D. Meiselman
(Note: selections are in the suggested order for reading. Readings marked with an asterisk (*) are required.)
I. The Supply of Money
The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions
Robert V. Roosa, Federal Reserve Operations in the Money and Government Securities Markets
A.J. Meigs, Free Reserves and Interest Rates in a Theory of Money Supply Determination, chapters 1, 3, 4, pp. 77-82.
*G. Horwich, “Elements of Timing and Response in the Balance Sheet of Banking,” Journal of Finance (May, 1957).
P. Cagan, “The Demand for Currency Relative to the Total Money Supply,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1958).
Albert G. Hart, “The Chicago Plan of Banking Reform,” in Readings in Monetary Theory.
*Milton Friedman, A Program for Monetary Stability, chapter 2.
Edward Simmons, “The Relative Liquidity of Money and Other Things,” in Readings in Monetary Theory.
Roland N. NcKean, “Liquidity and a National Balance Sheet,” in Readings in Monetary Theory.
II. Classical Quantity Theory and the Rate of Interest
*Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 8.
*Alfred Marshall, Official Papers, “Evidence Before the Indian Currency Committee (1849)” questions 11758-11762; and “Evidence Before the Gold and Silver Commission (1887-88),” questions 9629-86. Testimony to Royal Commission on The Depression of Trade and Industry (1886), answers to question 8(i).
*A.C. Pigou, “The Value of Money,” in Readings in Monetary Theory.
Knut Wicksell, Interest and Prices, chapter 4.
___________, “The Influence of the Rate of Interest on Prices,” Economic Journal, V (17) June, 1907.
*J.M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform, pp. 74-87, 41-73.
*Irving Fisher, The Theory of Interest, chapters 1-3.
*F.H. Knight, “Interest” in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences; also in Ethics of Competition.
Irving Fisher. Appreciation and Interest.
J.M. Keynes, Treatise on Money, Vol. 2, pp. 198-208.
*J.R. Hicks, “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money,” in Readings in Monetary Theory, and Economica (1935).
III. The Keynesian Revolution
A. The Demand for Money, and the Rate of Interest
*J.M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, chapters 11-17.
James Tobin, “The Interest-Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash,” Review of Economics and Statistics (August, 1956).
__________, “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Towards Risk,” Review of Economic Studies (August, 1956), pp. 241-47.
*W.J. Baumol, “The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (November, 1952).
*Joan Robinson, “The Rate of Interest” Econometrica, Vol. 19; reprinted as chapter I of The Rate of Interest and Other Essays.
Abba Lerner, “On the Marginal Product of Capital and the Marginal Efficiency of Investment,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1953), pp. 1-14.
B. The Theory of Income and Employment
*J.M. Keynes, The General Theory, chapters 1-4; chapter 6, section 2; chapters 7-10, 18-21, 24.
*Paul A. Samuelson, “The Simple Mathematics of Income Determination,” chapter 6 in Lloyd Metzler, et al, Income, Employment and Public Policy.
IV. The Wake of the Revolution
*J.R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the Classics,” Econometrica (April, 1937). Reprinted in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution.
*F. Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money,” Econometrica (January, 1944) and reprinted in Readings in Business Cycle Theory.
Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lectures 1, 3, 12-20.
*D.H. Robertson, “Mr. Keynes and the Rate of Interest,” in Essays in Monetary Theory, and Readings in Theory of Income Distribution.
J.R. Hicks, Value and Capital, pp. 115-27, 130-62.
*H.G. Johnson, “Notes on Some Cambridge Controversies in Monetary Theory,” and D.H. Robertson, “Comments on Mr. Johnson’s Notes,” Review of Economic Studies (1951-52), pp. 90-110.
*Harold Somers, “Monetary Policy and the Theory of Interest,” in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution.
*Don Patinkin, “Price Flexibility and Full Employment,” in Readings in Monetary Theory.
O.H. Brownlee, “The Theory of Employment and Stabilization Policy,” Journal of Political Economy (October, 1950).
Lloyd Metzler, “Wealth, Saving, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1951).
*H.G. Johnson, “The General Theory After 25 Years,” copies on reserve. Also, American Economic Review (May, 1961).
*Milton Friedman, “Price, Income and Monetary Changes in Three Wartime Periods,” and Whittlesey’s discussion, pp. 614-25 and 642-43, American Economic Review Supplement 42 (May, 1952).
*Milton Friedman and David Meiselman, “The Relative Stability of Monetary Velocity and the Investment Multiplier in the U.S., 1897-1958,” sections 1, 2, 3, 5. Copies on reserve.
V. The Demand for Money and General Equilibrium Theory
*Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, Introduction and chapters 1-4, 8, and quotations on pp. 420, 435.
____________, “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds: Stock and Flow Analysis,” Economica, 1958.
*G.C. Archibald and R.G. Lipsey, “Monetary and Value Theory: A Critique of Lange and Patinkin,” Review of Economic Studies 26 (1), pp 1-22.
*Milton Friedman, “The Quantity Theory of Money: A Restatement,” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, ed., M. Friedman.
*H. Makower and J. Marschak, “Assets, Prices, and Monetary Theory,” Readings in Price Theory and Economica (1938), pp. 261-88.
*M. Friedman, “The Demand for Money: Some Theoretical and Empirical Results,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1959), pp. 327-51.
Philip Cagan, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” esp. pp. 25-35 and 86-91 in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, ed., M. Friedman.
H.A. Latane, “Cash Balances and the Interest Rate—A Pragmatic Approach,” Review of Economics and Statistics (November, 1954), and supplementary article in Review of Economics and Statistics (November, 1960).
D. Meiselman, “Expectations, Errors, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates,” copies on reserve.
G.L.S. Shackle, “Recent Theories Concerning the Nature and Role of Interest,” Economic Journal (June, 1961).
John G. Gurley and Edward S. Shaw, Money in a Theory of Finance, chapters 1, 2, and summaries at the ends of succeeding chapters.
Don Patinkin, “Financial Intermediaries and Monetary Theory,” American Economic Review (March, 1961).
Alvin Marty, “Gurley and Shaw on Money in a Theory of Finance,” Journal of Political Economy(February, 1961).
*M. Friedman and D. Meiselman, op. cit., pp. 58-68.
VI. The Monetary Standard and International Monetary Adjustments
*Lloyd Mints, Monetary Policy for a Competitive Society, chapters 4,5.
*H.G. Johnson, International Trade and Economic Growth, chapters 6,7.
*J.M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform, pp. 87-138.
___________, “Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill,” in Essays in Persuasion.
*Milton Friedman, “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” in Essays in Positive Economics.
Alan Holmes, The New York Foreign Exchange Market, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 77, Folder “2. University of Chicago, Econ. 331”.
Image Source: David Meiselman 1979 portrait from Wikimedia Commons.