Jacob Viner and the Chicago monetary tradition

The paper aims at assessing Jacob Viner's role in that brand of monetary thought which historians associate with the Chicago School and whose origins can be retraced in the writings and teaching of Frank Knight, Lloyd Mints, Henry Simons and Viner himself. After a brief description of the prolonged debate over the origins and nature of the so called “Chicago Monetary Tradition”, we examine Viner's analyses and policy proposals drawing particular attention to: his analysis of the Great depression; his proposals for monetary expansion and banking reform; his shift of emphasis in favour of Fiscal Policy; the evolution of its monetary framework in the early 1930's. Finally, we compare his position with the ones associated with the early Chicago school and with the ones stemming from the Harvard economic department where Viner had been trained and with which he continued to entertain important ties.