Edmund Phelps quotes

Edmund Phelps is an American economist renowned for his work on macroeconomic theory and economic policy. His research on the natural rate of unemployment and the foundations of economic growth has had a profound impact on modern economics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions to understanding the relationship between inflation, unemployment, and long-term economic development. Here are 35 of his quotes:

At the simplest level, economics can better show us the consequences of our actions. Less simple are cases in which we don't have the knowledge to predict the full consequences. Global warming and climate change are examples. (Edmund Phelps)
For decades, my research was driven by outstanding problems in macroeconomics: mainly growth theory and employment theory. View quote
Edmund Phelps
I think the 19th century is an extraordinary period with a welling up of creativity and all kinds of experimentation and exploration going on at least until 1940. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Statistical studies are all over the lot about the pluses and minuses of raising the minimum wage. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Democrats and Republicans have been very keen to make home ownership almost a national purpose. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Workers in decent jobs view the economy as unjust if they or their children have virtually no chance of climbing to a higher rung in the socioeconomic ladder. View quote
Edmund Phelps
What theory can we use to get us out of the impending slump quickly and reliably? To use the 'new classical' theory of fluctuations begun at Chicago in the 1970s – the theory in which the "risk management" models are embedded – is unthinkable, since it is precisely the theory falsified by the asset price collapse. The thoughts of some have turned to John Maynard Keynes. His insights into uncertainty and speculation were deep. Yet his employment theory was problematic and the 'Keynesian' policy solutions are questionable at best.... At the end of his life Keynes wrote of 'modernist stuff, gone wrong and turned sour and silly'. He told his friend Friedrich Hayek he intended to re-examine his theory in his next book. He would have moved on. The admiration we all have for Keynes's fabulous contributions should not sway us from moving on. View quote
Edmund Phelps
The stampede toward "rational expectations” - widely thought to be a "revolution,” though it was only a generalization of the neoclassical idea of equilibrium-derailed the expectations-driven model building that had just left the station. In the end, this way of modeling has not illuminated how the world economy works. View quote
Edmund Phelps
It was gradually learned that acceptance of a somewhat higher inflation rate would not really bring somewhat higher employment. View quote
Edmund Phelps
With less competition to fear, companies are emboldened to raise their mark-ups and profits. That lifts share prices and thus the wealth of already wealthy shareholders. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Things can get only so bad. People want to eat, so at some point they resist further cuts to their consumption - it's not a bottomless pit. (Edmund Phelps)
An economy open to new concepts and novel ventures is bound to generate unequal gains. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Capitalist systems function less well without state protection of investors, lenders, and companies against monopoly, deception, and fraud. View quote
Edmund Phelps
In essence, capitalist systems are a mechanism by which economies may generate growth in knowledge - with much uncertainty in the process, owing to the incompleteness of knowledge. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Well into the 20th century, scholars viewed economic advances as resulting from commercial innovations enabled by the discoveries of scientists - discoveries that come from outside the economy and out of the blue. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Overpaying the banks for their toxic assets could contribute capital, but that may not be politically feasible or attractive. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Developing new products is labour- intensive. So is producing the capital goods needed to make them. These jobs disappear when innovation stalls. View quote
Edmund Phelps
'Egalitarians' who complain about inequality view the wealth of the wealthiest as bad in itself: it disfigures society. They would enact a wealth tax to extirpate the offending wealth. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Corporatist attitudes against capitalism came to the fore in the 1920s. Corporatists, with their conservative values, hated the invasion of towns and regions by new businesses, upsetting traditional ways, wealth and status. View quote
Edmund Phelps
To pump up consumer or government demand would force interest rates up and asset prices down, possibly by enough to destroy more jobs than are created. View quote
Edmund Phelps
No amount of debt restructuring, even debt forgiveness, will help the Greeks achieve real prosperity. What they need is not short-term relief but, rather, a long-term cure. (Edmund Phelps)
Companies like Google and Facebook may offer jobs allowing or requiring imagination and creativity, but the whole of Silicon Valley accounts for only 3 percent of national income and a smaller percentage of national employment. View quote
Edmund Phelps
The celebration of homeownership seems to be part of a countermovement against popular owning of shares in corporations. View quote
Edmund Phelps
Economics has paid a terrible price for its dalliances with the Keynesian and neoclassical theories. View quote
Edmund Phelps
I just think that the Europeans are depriving themselves of a high-employment economy, and they are depriving themselves of intellectual stimulation in the workplace - and personal growth - by sticking to the stultifying, rigid system that I call corporatism. View quote
Edmund Phelps

Edmund Phelps

Edmund Phelps - Image
Photo: Robert Scoble, CC BY 2.0
Occupation: American Economist
Born: July 26, 1933
Quotes count: 35