Ricardo's Macroeconomics

The outline of modern macroeconomics took shape in Britain in the early nineteenth century thanks, in part, to David Ricardo, one of the most influential economists of the time. Britain was challenged by monetary inflation, industrial unemployment and the loss of jobs abroad. Ricardo pointed the way forward. As a financier and Member of Parliament, he was well versed in politics and commercial affairs. His expertise is shown by the practicality of his proposals, including the resumption of the gold standard, which was essential given the destabilizing policy of the Bank of England. Ricardo's expertise appears also in his debate with T. R. Malthus about whether an industrial economy can suffer a prolonged depression. Say's Law of Markets and the Quantity Theory of Money figure prominently in his works, but not in an extreme form. He was instead a subtle theorist, recognizing the non-neutrality of money, trade depressions and unemployment.

"Davis has done a superb job of combining history of thought and economic history. We should have more studies like it." - Samuel Hollander, Ben Gurion University, Journal of Economic History, "Timothy Davis has written a most important book.... The first two chapters of Davis's book set out the cycle as seen by Ricardo; the book goes on to analyze his account of the major incidents of the postwar period and his contribution to Say's law of markets and his analysis of whether Britain was best characterized as being subject to Say's identity or Say's equation. Davis is a strong proponent of the view that Ricardo's analysis followed Say's equation, in which general gluts can occur, rather than Say's identity, where they cannot.... Any future will need to take Davis’s analysis of the important questions into account." - Walter Eltis, Oxford University, History of Political Economy, "Timothy Davis has produced a well researched, well written and scholarly piece of work." - Terry Peach, Manchester University, History of Economic Thought and Methodology

Timothy Davis has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Toronto and a law degree from Oxford University. He is a practising attorney and a member of the New York State Bar.