Profile Major Works Resources

Gerhard Colm, 1897-1968.

German public finance economist associated with the Kiel School and later, with the New School for Social Research.    His (then novel) approach  was to assess taxation policies not in terms of revenue generation, but rather in terms of their consequences on the economy.  His arguments influenced and paralleled the "functional finance" approach of Abba Lerner and the Neo-Keynesians in the post-war period.  Like them, Colm recommended the design of fiscal policies with macroeconomic objectives, in particular setting up automatic stabilizers to smooth out the cycle, and argued against fears of deficit spending,  arguing that "a balanced economy is more important than a balanced budget" .  He differed from the Keynesians, however, in to his insistence that the government set out a "long-term" strategy that included growth objectives, rather than short-term pump-priming.

Colm became an important advisor to the U.S. Government.  He is largely responsible for the "emergency budget" provisions which permits expenditures that will pay for themselves and the setting up and reporting of regular  government forecasts and projections and the use of Kuznets's national income statistics.  Colm had a a large role in the Employment Act of 1946, was appointed to the first Council of Economic Advisors in the United States. Colm was also one of the organizers of the German currency reform of 1948.  He was basically pushed out of official position in 1952 during the McCarthyite hysteria, and thereafter worked at the National Planning Association.

 

  

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Major works of Gerhard Colm

  • "Der volkswirtschaftliche Unterricht an der Volksshochschule", 1925, Archiv fur Erwarchsenenbildung.
  • "Der finanzwirtschaftliche Gesichtspunkt der Abrustungsproblems", 1927, in Handbuch des Abrustungsproblems
  • Volkwirtschaftliche Theorie der Staatsausgaben, 1929.
  • "Lohn, Zins-Arbeitslosigkeit", 1930, Die Arbeit
  • Kapitalbildung und Steuersystem, with H. Neisser, 1930
  • Der deutsche aussenhandel unter der Einwirkung der weltiwirtschaftlichen Strukturwandlungen, with H. Neisser, 1932.
  • "The Ideal Tax System", 1934, Social Research
  • "Theory of Public Expenditures", 1936, AAPS
  • "Public Spending and Recovery in the United States", with F. Lehmann, 1936, Social Research
  • "Is Economic Planning Compatible with Democracy?",  1937, in Ascoli and Lehmann, editors, Political and Economic Democracy.
  • Economic Consequences of Recent American tax policy with F. Lehmann, 1938.
  • "Comment on Extraordinary Budgets", 1938, Social Research
  • "The Revenue Act of 1938", 1938, Social Research
  • "Is Economic Security worth the Cost?", 1939, Social Research
  • "From Estimates of National Income to Projections of the Nation's Budget", 1945, Social Research
  • "Fiscal Policy", 1947, in Harris, editor, New Economics
  • Can we afford additional programs for national security?, 1953.
  • Entwicklungen in Konjunkturforschung und Konjunkturpolitik in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, 1954.
  • Essays in Public Finance and Fiscal Policy, 1955.
  • "Zur Frage einer konjuktur- und wachstumsadaquaten Finanzpolitik", 1956, Konjukturpolitik
  • The Economy of the American people, with T. Geiger, 1961.
  • "Economic Planning in the United States", 1964, World Affairs
  • Integration of National Planning and Budgeting, 1968.
HET

 
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Resources on Gerhard Colm

 

 
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