Frank W. Taussig (1859–1940)

Frank Taussig’s reputation as the pre-eminent American economist of his era was mostly founded on the numerous significant contributions he made to theoretical economics, most clearly seen in his work on international trade. However, as this chapter endeavours to show, Taussig sought to differentiate himself from other economists by working across a number of subject areas within economics, including, but not limited to, wages and capital, business history—highlighting the importance he attached to empirical verification—silver, business cycles and population theory. With one eye on his willing students at Harvard and under the influence of Marshall, Ricardo and Mill, he also wrote a very popular economics textbook. To cap it all, there was his multi-decadel editing of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and his public service both on the US Tariff Commission and as an economic adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.