Christopher K Ryan – författare

"For decades, [his] work was neglected as the profession pursued one fad after another, but now, as economists have returned, more or less, to their mainstream, they are seeing once again the brilliance and insight of people like H.G. Brown."—Arnold Harberger, University of Chicago

This book presents the biography of Harry Gunnison Brown, one of the greatest U.S. economists. It examines his contributions by considering separately his work in the wide variety of topics that interested him and with an even treatment of his efforts.

Harry Gunnison Brown was born in 1880 and died in 1975. He was part of a important group of American economists that included Herbert J. Davenport, E.R.A. Seligman, J. B. Clark, Alvin S. Johnson, Frank A. Fetter, Richard T. Ely and Frank Knight. In some ways Brown represented an orthodoxy in economics that was slipping away as neoclassical economics assumed a particular shape. For example, Brown argued for the separate influences of both land and capital goods on the pricing of goods and services and did not follow the trend in “orthodox” circles of considering land just another form of capital. Brown supported land value taxation at a time when the leading economists of his day rejected Henry George’s ideas and the possibility of Georgist economics. Ryan explores the work of Harry Gunnison Brown, one the most important innovators in American economic historySummarizes Brown’s theoretical insights as well as the intellectual contexts in which they were developed