Wesley Clair Mitchell American economist Date of Birth: 05.08.1874 Country: USA

Biography of Wesley Clair Mitchell

Wesley Clair Mitchell was an American economist known for his work on economic cycles and his role as a consultant at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Born in Rushville, Illinois, Mitchell was the second child and eldest son of a former military doctor. His father, who later switched to farming, had a total of seven children. Unfortunately, not even disability stopped Mitchell Sr. from engaging in various commercial ventures. As a result, Wesley took on many family responsibilities at an early age. Fortunately, he overcame all hardships and was able to attend the University of Chicago. Mitchell excelled in his studies, earning a PhD degree by 1899. Among his mentors were prominent economists such as Thorstein Veblen and J.L. Laughlin, as well as philosopher John Dewey. While Veblen and Dewey had the greatest influence on Mitchell's development as a scholar, Laughlin supervised his dissertation. At that time, Laughlin was actively studying currency existence cycles and had many objections to quantitative monetary theory. The choice of currency was a significant issue in the United States, with the country standing at a crossroads between several monetary standards. Mitchell's work, 'A History of Greenbacks,' focused on the potential consequences of adopting a fiat standard. Along with his subsequent work, 'Gold Prices and Wages Under the Greenback Standard,' his research provided an impressive quantitative overview of the American economy in recent years. Mitchell's interests soon shifted towards economic cycles, a subject he continued to study until the end of his days. His major work on this topic, 'Business Cycles,' was published in 1913. In the first chapter of the book, Mitchell analyzed thirteen theories of economic cycles, deeming them all to some extent reasonable before ultimately discarding each one. Mitchell's research strategy differed considerably from the works of Irving Fisher and Henry Moore, who typically attempted to first propose a hypothesis and then prove it. Mitchell also had other methodological differences, as Moore actively utilized the latest correlation and regression statistical methods, while Mitchell did not find them particularly useful. Wesley Mitchell was one of the founders of the New School for Social Research and the National Bureau of Economic Research. He taught at the New School for three years from 1919 to 1922, and his contributions to the NBER were even more significant. The Bureau was established in 1920, and Mitchell remained the director of the research department until 1945. The government utilized Mitchell's services during World War I, and he later supervised the work of several government committees. From 1929 to 1933, Mitchell served as the chairman of the President's Committee on Social Trends, and from 1923 to 1924, he led the American Economic Association. Wesley Clair Mitchell passed away on October 29, 1948, at the age of 74.