Ronald McKinnon

Ronald Ian McKinnon (born July 10, 1935 in Edmonton , Alberta , Canada , † October 1, 2014 in Burlingame , California , United States ) was a Canadian economist .

Career, research and teaching

McKinnon studied at the University of Alberta , which he left in 1956 as a Bachelor of Arts in the direction of the University of Minnesota . There he graduated in 1961 as a Ph.D.

McKinnon taught as a lecturer at Syracuse University as early as 1960 , before moving on to Stanford University as an assistant professor in 1961 . From 1966 associate professor at the university, in 1969 the college appointed him full professor for economics. In 1984 he took over the William D. Eberle Professorship for International Economics and was retired in 2005.

The main focus of McKinnon's work lies in the field of international economics, relationships and economic development, with a particular focus on transformation economics . His publications cover banks, financial markets and their regulation, as well as historical developments in monetary and economic systems.

In the 1970s, McKinnon and his colleague Edward Shaw coined the term financial repression to describe the methods by which state institutions withdraw funds from the economic cycle in regulated markets in order to reduce their debts and thus promote inflation. Subsequently, he remained connected to this research area and developed approaches to overcome these cuts in the economic process and to establish and maintain open markets.

McKinnon also contributed to the description of the theory of optimal currency areas . He examined how different national currencies and especially international money exchange agreements affect economic relations. He published important publications on the historical understanding of the development of the US dollar as the standard currency and how this standard could be further developed to guarantee a stable global economy. Since 2001, Ronald McKinnon has been working closely with the Leipzig economist Gunther Schnabl on issues of East Asian monetary integration. The two scientists showed that in East Asia foreign debt or foreign assets denominated in foreign currencies are an important motivation for exchange rate stabilization.

McKinnon has received various awards for his work, including several honorary professorships. In addition to teaching at Stanford University, he worked as a visiting professor and was a consultant for the World Bank and governments, among others. a. from Peru , Chile , Kuwait and Uruguay . A sought-after columnist - often as an Op-Ed - he published newspaper articles and commentaries in publications such as The Economist , Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal .

McKinnon died in a hospital in Burlingame on October 1, 2014 at the age of 79 as a result of suffering multiple strokes after a fall .

Works (selection)

The following is a selection of books and monographs published by McKinnon. He has also published various magazine articles and working papers.

• Money and Capital in Economic Development (1973)
• Money in International Exchange: The Convertible Currency System (1979)
• An International Standard for Monetary Stabilization (1984)
• The Order of Economic Liberalization: Financial Control in the Transition to a Market Economy (1993)
• Exchange Rates under the East Asian Dollar Standard: Living with Conflicted Virtue (2005)

literature

• Mark Blaug (Ed.): Who's who in economics. 3rd edition, Elgar, Cheltenham [u. a.] 1999, ISBN 1-85898-886-1 , pp. 756-757

Web links

• Literature by and about Ronald McKinnon in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ronald McKinnon at Stanford University

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Miller: Ronald McKinnon dies at 79; economist opposed Fed asset purchases. In: Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2014 (accessed October 7, 2014).