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Paul Davidson

Paul Davidson holds the Holly Chair of Excellence in Political Economy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is the editor and co-founder of the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics and member of the Editorial Board of Ekonomia. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 19 books and over 160 articles. His research interests include: International monetary payments and global employment policies, monetary theory, income distribution, energy economics, demand and supply for outdoor recreation, Post Keynesian economics. Paul Davidson is listed in Who's Who In Economics, Who's Who In The East, Who's Who In The South and Southwest, American Economists of The Late Twentieth Century, Dictionary of International Biography, Men of Achievement, and Contemporary Authors.

Paul Davidson was born on 23 October 1930 in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1950 with majors in Chemistry and Biology. From 1950 to 1952, Davidson was a graduate student in biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania where he was also a biochemistry instructor at the university's Medical and Dental School. Even though Davidson had completed most of his course work and already had decided to do his Ph.D. dissertation on DNA, he quickly lost interest in biochemistry and decided to withdraw from the program. Then, he went back to New York and enrolled in a business program at City University, where he was required to take a course in basic economics. Having a very good background in experimental design and statistical inference, Davidson was shocked by the misuse of empirical data by economists, and decided to do his MBA thesis on "The Statistical Analysis of Economic Time Series."

In August 1958, Davidson earned his Ph.D. in economics and did his dissertation on "Theories of Relative Shares" at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Sydney Weintraub who had a major intellectual influence on Paul Davidson. This explains Davidson's early interest in Keynes' brand of macroeconomics, and also in the distribution of income. His first article "A Clarification of the Ricardian Rent Share" was published in 1959 while he was Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. Later on Davidson joined Continental Oil Company were he was involved in providing economic projections and evaluating investment projects for the Management Executive Committee of the corporation. This experience enabled him to see the fundamental flaws of the neoclassical theory of entrepreneurial expectation formation and decision making. In 1963, Davidson published his article on "Public Policy Problems of the Domestic Crude Oil Industry," which was the result of his relatively short experience in the oil industry.

In the mid 1960s, Davidson took an Assistant Professor position at the University of Pennsylvania. Being back into the academic arena, Davidson was able to concentrate more on his research interests, namely on the connection between inflation, income distribution and money. When he published his "Keynes' Finance Motive" article in 1965, Davidson was finally able to integrate monetary analysis in Keynes' general theory. In the 1970-71 period, Paul Davidson was at Cambridge University (U.K.). He considered his stay at Cambridge to be the most productive investment of his life. The offspring of his visit to Cambridge was his classic Money and the Real World published in 1972. He took benefit of the daily interaction with Nicholas Kaldor, Richard Khan, Michael Posner, as well as Basil Moore and J.K. Galbraith who were both also visiting Cambridge at that time.

Davidson also benefited from his intensive and generally heated discussions with Joan Robinson regarding drafts of the manuscript of his book Money and the Real World. He argued that she did not like his arguments regarding the Cambridge-post-Keynesian approach and his criticism of Kaldor's neo-Pasinetti theorem. After a few weeks of heated discussions, she refused to even speak to him about the book. Davidson argued that he learned a lot from a daily writing exercise that Robinson assigned to him every morning during his stay at Cambridge.

Selected Publications

Paul Davidson, "A Clarification of the Ricardian Rent Share", Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 1959.

Paul Davidson, "Increasing Employment, Diminishing Returns, Relative Shares, and Ricardo", 1960, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 1960.

Paul Davidson, Theories of Aggregate Income Distribution. New Brunswick, N. J., Rutgers University Press 1960.

Paul Davidson, "More on the Aggregate Supply Function." Economic Journal, 1962.

Paul Davidson, "Employment and Income Multipliers and the Price Level," American Economic Review, 1962.

Paul Davidson, "Public Policy Problems of the Domestic Crude Oil Industry." American Economic Review, 1963.

Paul Davidson, and E. Smolensky, "Modigliani on the Interaction of Real and Monetary Phenomena." Review of Economics and Statistics, 1964.

Paul Davidson, and E. Smolensky, Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis, 1964.

Paul Davidson, "Keynes's Finance Motive." Oxford EP, 1965.

Paul Davidson, "The Social Value of Water Recreational Facilities resulting from an Improvement in Water Quality in an Estuary: The Delary - A Case Study." 1966.

Paul Davidson, "The Importance of the Demand for Finance." Oxford EP, 1967.

Paul Davidson, "A Keynesian View of Patinkin's Theory of Employment." Economic Journal, 1967.

Paul Davidson, "The Valuation of Public Goods," in Garnsey and Hibbs, editors, Social Sciences and the Environment, 1968.

Paul Davidson, "Money, Portfolio Balance, Capital Accumulation, and Economic Growth," Econometrica, 36, 1968.

Paul Davidson, "The Demand and Supply of Securities and Economic Growth and its implications for the Kaldor-Pasinetti vs. Samuelson-Modigliani controversy" American Economic Review, 1968.

Paul Davidson, "A Keynesian View of the Relationship Between Accumulation, Money and the Money Wage Rate" Economic Journal, 1969.

Paul Davidson, "Money and the Real World." Economic Journal, 1972.

Paul Davidson, "A Keynesian View of Friedman's Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, 1972.

Paul Davidson, Money and the Real World, New York, John Wiley 1972.

Paul Davidson, and S. Weintraub, "Money as Cause and Effect." Economic Journal, 1973.

Paul Davidson, "Market Disequilibrium Adjustments: Marshall Revisited," Economic Inquiry, 1974.

Paul Davidson, L. H. Falk and H. Lee, "Oil: Its Time Allocation and ProJournal of Economics Independence," BPEA, 1974.

Paul Davidson, "Post-Keynesian Monetary Theory and Inflation", in Weintraub, editor, Modern Economic Thought, 1977.

Paul Davidson, "A Discussion of Leijonhufvud's Social Consequences of Inflation", in Harcourt, editor, Microfoundations of Macroeconomics, 1977.

Paul Davidson, "The Carter Energy Proposal", Challenge, 1977.

Paul Davidson, "Money and General Equilibrium," Economie AppliquČe, 1977.

Paul Davidson, "Why Money Matters: Lessons from a half-century of Monetary Theory." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 1, No 1, (Fall 1978): 46-70.

Paul Davidson, "The United States Internal Revenue Service: fourteenth member of OPEC?" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter 1978-79): 47-58.

Paul Davidson, "Oil Conservation: theory vs. policy." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 2, No 1, (Fall 1979):145-49.

Paul Davidson, "Post Keynesian Approach to the Theory of Natural Resources", Challenge, 1979.

Paul Davidson, and M.A. Miles, "Monetary Policy, Regulation and International Adjustments," Economies et Societies, 1979.

Paul Davidson, "Oil Conservation: Theory vs. Policy." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 1979.

Paul Davidson, "What Is the Energy Crisis?" Challenge, 1979.

Paul Davidson, and Jan A. Kregel, "Keynes's Paradigm: A Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis", in Nell, editor, Growth, Property and Profits, 1980.

Paul Davidson, "The Dual-faceted Nature of the Keynesian Revolution: Money and Money Wages in Unemployment and Production flow Prices." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 2, No 3, (Spring 1980): 291-307.

Paul Davidson, On Bronfenbrenner and mainstream views of the "essential properties" of money: a reply." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 2, No 3, (Spring 1980): 314-18.

Paul Davidson, "Causality in Economics: a review, "Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 2, No. 4, (Summer 1980): 576-84.

Paul Davidson, "Keynes's Theory of Employment, Expectations and Indexing." Revista de Economia Latinoamericana, 1980.

Paul Davidson, "Post Keynesian Economics: Solving the Crisis in Economic Theory." in Bell and Kristol, editors, The Crisis in Economic Theory, 1981.

Paul Davidson, "Can VAT resolve the shortage of savings (SDS) distress?" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 4, No 1, (Fall 1981): 51-60.

Paul Davidson, "Alfred Marshall is Alive and Well in Post Keynesian Economics" IHS Journal, 1981.

Paul Davidson, "A Critical Analysis of the Monetarist-Rational Expectations Supply Side (Incentive) Economics Approach to Accumulation During a Period of Inflationary Expectations," Kredit und Kapital, 1981.

Paul Davidson, International Money and the Real World, London: Macmillan, 1982.

Paul Davidson, "Rational Expectations: a fallacious foundation for studying crucial decision-making processes." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 5, No 2, (Winter 1982-83): 182-98.

Paul Davidson, "Monetarism and Reagonomics" in Weintraub and Goodstein, editors, Reagonomics in the Stagflation Economy, 1983.

Paul Davidson, "The Dubious Labor Market Analysis in Meltzer's Review of Economics and Statisticsement of Keynes's Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, 1983.

Paul Davidson, "The marginal product curve is not the demand curve for labor and Lucas's labor supply function is not the supply curve for labor in the real world." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 6, No 1, (Fall 1983): 105-17.

Paul Davidson, "An Appraisal of Weintraub's Work." Eastern Economic Journal, 1983.

Paul Davidson, "Reviving Keynes's Revolution." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 1984.

Paul Davidson, "The Conventional Wisdom on Deficits Is Wrong." Challenge, 1984.

Paul Davidson, and G. S. Davidson, "Financial Markets and Williamson's Theory of Governance: Efficiency vs. Concentration vs. Power," Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, 1984.

Paul Davidson, "Reviving Keynes's revolution," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 6, No 4, (Summer 1984): 561-75.

Paul Davidson, "Introduction: Symposium on increasing returns and unemployment theory." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 7, No 3, (Spring 1985): 350-351;

Paul Davidson, "Liquidity and not increasing returns is the ultimate source of unemployment equilibrium." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 7, No 3, (Spring 1985): 373-384.

Paul Davidson, "Can effective demand and the movement toward further income equality be maintained in the face of robotics? an introduction." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 7, No 3, (Spring 1985): 422-425.

Paul Davidson, "Sidney Weintraub - An Economist of the Real World." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 1985.

Paul Davidson, "Incomes Policy as a Social Institution," in Maital and Lipnowski, editors, Macroeconomic Conflict and Social Institutions, 1985.

Paul Davidson, "Policies For Prices And Incomes", in Barrere, editor, Keynes Today, 1985.

"Paul Davidson, "A Post Keynesian View of Theories and Causes of High Real Interest Rates," Thames Papers in Political Economy, 1986.

Paul Davidson, "Finance, funding, saving, and investment." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 9, No 1, (Fall 1986): 101-110.

Paul Davidson, "The Simple Macroeconomics of a Nonergodic Monetary Economy vs. a Share Economy: Is Weitzman's macroeconomics too simple?" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 1986.

Paul Davidson, "The simple macroeconomics of a nonergodic monetary economy versus a share economy: Is Weitzman's macroeconomics too simple?" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 9, No 2, (Winter 1986-87): 212-225.

Paul Davidson, "Sensible Expectations and the Long-Run Non-Neutrality of Money", Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 1987.

Paul Davidson, "A Modest Set of Proposals for Remedying The International Debt Problem", Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 1987.

Paul Davidson, "Introduction: Symposium on lessons from Keynes's "General Theory." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 10, No 1, (Fall 1987): 123.

Paul Davidson, "Sensible expectations and the long-run non-neutrality of money." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 10, No 1, (Fall 1987): 146-153.

Paul Davidson, "A modest set of proposals for resolving the international debt problem." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 10, No 2, (Winter 1987-88): 323-338.

Paul Davidson, "Introduction: three views on the endogenous money supply." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 10, No 3, (Spring 1988): 370-371.

Paul Davidson, "Introduction: Symposium on Reagan's economic policies." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 10, No 4, (Summer 1988): 527.

Paul Davidson, "Weitzman's Share Economy And The Aggregate Supply Function", in Hamouda and Smithin, editors, Keynes and Public Policy After Fifty Years, 1988.

Paul Davidson, "Endogenous Money, The Production Process, And Inflation Analysis", Economie AppliquČe, 1988.

Paul Davidson, "A Technical Definition of Uncertainty and the Long Run Non- Neutrality of Money", Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1988.

Paul Davidson, and G. Davidson, Economics for a Civilized Society, New York: W.W. Norton, 1988.

Paul Davidson, "Financial Markets, Investment, and Employment", in Matzner et al, editors, Barriers to Full Employment, 1988.

Paul Davidson, "Keynes and Money," in Hill, editor, Keynes, Money, and Monetarism, 1989.

Paul Davidson, "Prices and Income Policy: An Essay in Honor of Sidney Weintraub," in Barrere, editor, Money, Credit, and Prices in Keynesian Perspective, 1989.

Paul Davidson and Jan A. Kregel, Macroeconomic Problems and Policies of Income Distribution: Functional, Personal, International. Aldershot, Hants, Englan : E. Elgar; Brookfield, Vt., US: Gower Pub. [distributor], 1989.

Paul Davidson, "Patinkin's Interpretation of Keynes and the Keynesian Cross", HOPE, 1989.

Paul Davidson, "Only in America: Neither The Homeless Nor The Yachtless Are Economic Problems", Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 11, No 1 (Fall 1989): 164-166.

Paul Davidson, " On the endogeneity of money once more." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 11, No 3, (Spring 1989): 488-490.

Paul Davidson, "The Economics of Ignorance Or Ignorance of Economics?" Critical Review, 1989.

Paul Davidson, "Shackle and Keynes vs. Rational Expectations Theory on the Role of Time, Liquidity, and Financial Markets," in S. Frowen, editor, Unkowledge and Choice in Economics, 1990.

Paul Davidson, "Liquidity Proposals for a New Bretton Woods Plan", in Barrere, Keynesian Economic Policies, 1990.

Paul Davidson, "On Thirlwall's Law", Revista de Economia Politica, 1990.

Paul Davidson, Collected Writings of Paul Davidson, 2 vols, Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press, 1990-1.

Paul Davidson, Inflation, Open Economies, and Resources. Washington Square, N.Y : New York University Press, 1991.

Paul Davidson, Controversies in Post Keynesian Economics, Aldershot, Hants, England; Brookfield, Vt., USA: E. Elgar, 1991.

Paul Davidson, "A Post Keynesian Positive Contribution To `Theory'", Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 1991.

Paul Davidson, "Is Probability Theory Relevant For Choice Under Uncertainty?: A Post Keynesian Perspective", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5, (Winter 1991).

Paul Davidson, "What Kind of International Payments System Would Keynes Have Recommended for the Twenty-First Century?" in Davidson and Kregel, editors, Economic Problems of the 1990s, 1991.

Paul Davidson, "Money: Cause or Effect? Exogenous or Endogenous?" in Nell and Semmler, editors, Nicholas Kaldor and Mainstream Economics, 1992.

Paul Davidson, "Eichner's Approach to Money and Macroeconomics", in Milberg, editor, The Megacorp and Macrodynamics, 1992.

Paul Davidson, "Would Keynes Be a New Keynesian?" Eastern Economic Journal, 1992.

Paul Davidson, "Introduction to Minisymposium on Reforming the World's Monetary System." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 15, No 2, (Winter 1992-93): 151.

Paul Davidson, " Reforming the world's money." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 15, No 2, (Winter 1992-93): 153-179.

Paul Davidson, "Asset Deflation and Financial Fragility," in Arestis, editor, Contemporary Issues in Money and Banking, 1993.

Paul Davidson, Can the Free Market Pick Winners? What Determines Investment. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1993.

Paul Davidson, " Introduction to Minisymposium on Hysteresis." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 15, No 3, (Spring 1993): 303.

Paul Davidson, "The elephant and the butterfly: or Hysteresis and Post Keynesian economics." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 15, No 3, (Spring 1993): 309-322.

Paul Davidson, and Jan A. Kregel, Growth, Employment and Finance: Economic Reality and Economic Theory, 1994.

Paul Davidson, "The Asimakopulos View of Keynes's General Theory", in Harcourt and Roncaglia, editors, Investment and Employment in Theory and Practice, 1994.

Paul Davidson, "Monetary Theory and Policy In A Global Context With A Large International Debt," in Frowen, editor, Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy, 1994.

Paul Davidson, Post Keynesian Macroeconomic Theory: A Foundation for Successful Economic Policies for the Twenty-first Century, Aldershot, England; Brookfield, Vt., USA: E. Elgar, 1994.

Paul Davidson, "Mini-symposium on 'Is Keynesian demand management policy still viable?' Introduction." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 17, No 2, (Winter 1994-95): 185-186.

Paul Davidson, " Introduction to 'Minisymposium: Is an independent central bank necessary or desirable?'" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 18, No 2, (Winter 1995-96): 157-158.

Philip Arestis, Keynes, Money, and the Open Economy: Essays in honour of Paul Davidson. Volume one. Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1996.

Philip Arestis, Employment, Economic Growth, and the Tyranny of the Market: Essays in honour of Paul Davidson. Volume two. Cheltenham; Brookfield, Vt.: Edward Elgar, 1996.

Paul Davidson, "What Are The Essential Characteristics of Post Keynesian Monetary Theory?", in G. Deleplace and E. J. Nell, editors, Money in Motion, 1996.

Paul Davidson, "The General Theory in An Open Economy," in Harcourt and Riach, editors, A Second Edition of the General Theory, 1996.

Paul Davidson, " Reality and economic theory." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 18, No 4, (Summer 1996): 479-508.

Paul Davidson, " What revolution? The legacy of Keynes." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 19, No 1, (Fall 1996): 47-60.

Paul Davidson, " Introduction to Mini-symposium on Thirlwall's law and economic growth in an open-economy context." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 19, No 3, (Spring 1997): 311-312.

Paul Davidson, " A platform for Nobel laureate William Vickrey." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 19, No 4, (Summer 1997): 493-494.

Paul Davidson, "Are Grains of Sand In The Wheels of International Finance Sufficient To Do The Job When Boulders Are Often Required?" Economic Journal, 1997.

Paul Davidson, and Jan A. Kregel, Improving the Global Economy: Keynesianism and the growth in output and employment. Cheltenham, UK; Lyme, NH: E. Elgar, 1997.

Richard P. F. Holt, J. Barkley Rosser, Jr., and L. Randall Wray, "Paul Davidson's Economics." The Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Working Paper No. 251, September 1998.

Paul Davidson and Jan A. Kregel, Full Employment and Price Stability in a Global Economy. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 1999.

Paul Davidson, "Keynes' Principle of Effective demand versus the bedlam of the new Keynesians." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 21, No 4, (Summer 1999): 571-588.

Paul Davidson, "Capital Movements, Tobin Tax, and Permanent Fire Prevention: A Response to de Angelis." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 22, No 2, (Winter 1999-2000): 197-206.

Paul Davidson, "LDCs, Institutions, and Money." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 22, No 3, (Spring 2000): 423-426.

Paul Davidson, "There are differences between Kalecki's theory of employment and Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 23, No 1, (Fall 2000): 3-26.

Paul Davidson, "The Principle of effective Demand: Another view." Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 23, No 3, (Spring 2001): 391-410.