Profile Major Works Resources

Frank A. Fetter, 1863-1949.

Portrait of F.A.Fetter

American Neoclassical theorist.

Born and raised rural Indiana, Frank A. Fetter enrolled at Indiana University, but interrupted his studies to help with the family bookstore business.  While working at the bookstore, Fetter came across the works of Henry George, and decided to turn to economics.  He re-enrolled at Indiana in 1890, where he came into the orbit of Jeremiah W. Jenks.  After completing his bachelor's degree in 1891, Jenks brought Fetter to Cornell on a fellowship for his M.A., then sent him off to Germany.  Fetter obtained his doctorate at Halle under Johannes Conrad in 1894.  Upon returning to the United States, Fetter was promptly appointed to the faculty at Cornell, before moving on as professor of economics at Indiana University.  Fetter remained at Indiana until 1898, when he moved to Stanford. Outraged by the Ross affair, Fetter resigned from Stanford in 1901, and was immediately picked up by Cornell, where he would remain for the next decade.  In 1912, Fetter moved to Princeton.

A friend of Böhm-Bawerk and Wieser, Frank A. Fetter was the foremost advocate of the Austrian School in the United States. An avid opponent of Marshall and the Marshallian school (e.g. 1902), this Cornell and Princeton economist did his utmost to curb the latter's influence in the United States. Although his life's task was the rewriting of a unified theory of distribution which incorporated all factors under the Austrian conception of capital, Fetter also worked on various other topics - such as welfare and monopoly.

Fetter liked to group himself together with Thorstein Veblen and Cornell colleague, Herbert J. Davenport as the "American Psychological School".  Convinced that Thorstein Veblen had effectively destroyed utilitarianism, Fetter appealed to the psychological idea of "volition" and "subjective choice" reminiscent of Pareto's approach without the hedonic pleasure-pain calculus. Subjective choice, however motivated, whether by rational calculation or instinctive impulses, led to valuation. His 1904 Principles sought to recast economic theory along the lines of his unique Veblenian-Austrian views.

 

  

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Major works of Frank A. Fetter

  • Versuch einer Bevolkerungslehre ausgehend von einer Kritk des Malthus'schen Bevolkerungsprincips, 1894, Jena.
  • "Theories of Value and Their Application to the Question of the Standard of Deferred Payments (abstract)", 1895, Pub AEA (Mar- Supp),  p.101 [js]
  • "The Exploitation of Theories of Value in Discussion  of the Standard of Deferred Payments", 1895, AAPSS
  • "The Gold Reserve: Its function and its maintenance", 1896, PSQ
  • "Review of Taussig's Wages and Capital", 1897, PSQ
  • "The Essay on Malthus: A Centennial Review", 1898, Yale Rev
  • "Review of Nicholls' History of the English Poor Laws", 1898 JPE
  • "Social Progress and Race Degeneration", 1899, Forum
  • "Recent Discussion of the Capital Concept", 1900, QJE. [McM]
  • "The Next Decade of Economic Theory", 1901, Pub AEA. p.263
  • "The Passing of the Old Rent Concept", 1901, QJE.
  • "The Subsidizing of Private Charities", 1901, AJS
  • "Review of Böhm-Bawerk's Capital und Capitalzins", 1901, JPE
  • "Review of Saito, La protection ouvriere au Japon",  1901, JPE
  • "Review of the History of English Poor Relief", 1901, JPE
  • "Review of Böhm-Bawerk's Einege strittige Fragen", 1902, PSQ
  • "Review of Böhm-Bawerk's Positive Theorie des Capitals", 1902, JPE
  • "Review of  Lockwood's New Harmony Communities and Broome's Last Days of Ruskin Co-operative", 1902, JPE
  • "Review of Gibson's Natural Economy", 1902, JPE
  • "The "Roundabout Process" in the Interest Theory", 1902, QJE.
  • "The Relations Between Rent and Interest", 1904, AEA.
  • The Principles of Economics, with applications to practical problems. 1904 (2nd. ed, 1910; 3rd. ed, 1911). [audio]
  • "Changes in the Tax Laws of New York State", 1905, QJE
  • "Review of Cassel's Nature and Necessity of Interest and Böhm-Bawerk's Recent Literature on Interest", 1905, PSQ
  • "The Fundamental Conceptions and Methods of Economics", 1906, in International Congress of Arts and Sciences.
  • "The Present State of the Theory of Distribution: Discussion", 1906, AEA
  • "The German Imperial Inheritance Tax", 1907, QJE
  • "Western Civilization and Birth Rate", 1907, AEA, AJS
  • "Review of Fisher's Nature of Capital and Income", 1907, JPE.
  • "Are Savings Income?  Comment on Fisher", 1908, AEA
  • "Agreements in Political Economy: Discussion", 1908, AEA
  • "The Theory of the Middleman", 1909, in Baily, ed., Cyclopedia of American Agriculture
  • "The Phenomena of Economic Dynamics: Discussion", 1910, AEA
  • "Interstate Commerce", 1910, Encycl Britannica
  • "An Attempt to Define SocialisM: Discussion", 1911, AEA
  • Source Book in Economics, 1912
  • "The Definition of Price", 1912, AEA
  • "Population or Prosperity", 1913, AER
  • "Interest Theories: Old and New", 1914, AER.
  • "Capitalization versus Productivity: Rejoinder", 1914, AER
  • "Review of Davenport, Economics of Enterprise", 1914, JPE
  • Economics, Vol. 1: Economic Principles, 1915.
  • "An Appeal to the Sober Reader", 1916, JPE
  • Economics, Vol. 2: Modern Economic Problems, 1917.
  • "Landed Property as an Economic Concept: Comment on Ely", 1917, AER
  • "The Psychological Basis for the Economic Interpretation of History: Comment", 1919, AER
  • "Price Economics Versus Welfare Economics", 1920, AER
  • "Price Economics Versus Welfare Economics: Contemporary Opinion", 1920, AER
  • "Economic Law of Market Areas", 1924, QJE.
  • "The Economists and the Public", 1925, AER
  • "Tribute to Professor John Bates Clark", 1927, AER
  • "Clark's Reformulation of the Capital Concept", 1927, in Hollander, editor, Essays in Honor of J.B. Clark.
  • "Interest Theory and Price Movements", 1927, AER.
  • "Review of Burns's Decline of Competition", 1937, JPE
  • "Comment on Rent under Increasing Returns", 1930, AER
  • "Capital", "Rent", 1930, in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
  • The Masquerade of Monopoly, 1931.
  • "Reformulations of the Concepts of Capital and Income in Economics and Accounting", 1937, Accounting Review
  • "The Early History of Political Economy in the United State", 1943, APS Proceedings
  • Capital, Interest and Rent: Essays in the theory of distribution, 1977.
HET

 
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Resources on Frank Fetter

  • "The Discount Versus the Cost-of-Production Theory of Capital Valuation" by Harry G. Brown, 1914, AER
  • "Review of Fetter's Economic Principlesi", by Carroll W. Doten, 1916, AER
  • Princeton Companion  entry  on Frank A. Fetter
  • "Frank A. Fetter: A Forgotten Giant" by Jeffrey Herbener (at Mises Institute)
  • Fetter Page at McMaster
  •  Wikipedia

 

 
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