Profile Major Works Resources

Frederick Lavington, 1881-1927.

English Cambridge Neoclassical economist. 

Having already had a bit of an early career as a banker for a decade, Frederick Lavington enrolled in 1908 at Emmanuel College, Cambridge at a rather mature age.  Lavington was one of the first pupils of John Maynard Keynes, and quickly excelled in economics.  After graduating in 1911, Lavington served for several years on the Board of Trade. Lavington returned to Cambridge in 1918.  He was made Girdler lecturer in 1920 and fellow of Emmanuel College in 1922. 

In his brief academic career, Frederick Lavington remained perhaps one of the most orthodox of the Marshallian school, famous for his quip "It's all in Marshall, if one only digs deeply enough". Lavington articulated a version of the Cambridge "cash-balance" approach to monetary theory in his celebrated 1921 handbook.  In some readings, he is even regarded as the progenitor of the theory of liquidity preference (Lavington characterized interest as a "payment for uncertainty"). He was also among the first to recommend that the Bank of England target interest rates as a counter-cyclical policy.

Lavington's 1922 book on the trade cycle elaborated on the themes of his earlier work. Lavington followed closely the works of Pigou and Robertson, and identified excessive confidence as the linchpin of the cycle, optimism breeding further optimism, pessimism further pessimism.

Frederick Lavington died in 1927, at the age of 46.

 

  

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Major Works of Frederick Lavington

  • "The Social Importance of Banking", 1911, EJ, p.53
  • "Uncertainty in its Relation to the Net Rate of Interest", 1912, EJ
  • "The Social Interest in Speculation on the Stock Exchange", 1913, EJ
  • The English Capital Market, 1921 [av]
  • The Trade Cycle: An account of the causes producing changes in the activity of business, 1922.[av]
  • "Short and Long Rates of Interest", 1924, Economica
  • "An Approach to the Theory of Business Risks, I", 1925, EJ
  • "An Approach to the Theory of Business Risks, II", 1926, EJ
  • "Monopoly and Busines Stability", 1926, Economica
  • "Technical Influences on Vertical Integration", 1927, Economica

 
HET

 
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Resources on Frederick Lavington

  • "Obituary: Frederick Lavington", by H. Wright, 1927, EJ
  • "Frederick Lavington on Big Business: implicit normative behavior of entrepreneurship" by Atushi Komine, 2010 [pdf]

 

 
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