Laughlin, James Laurence

Laughlin, James Laurence (lŏf`lĭn), 1850–1933, American economist, b. Deerfield, Ohio, Ph.D. Harvard, 1876. He was a distinguished teacher, and as head of the department of political economy at the Univ. of Chicago (1892–1916) he gathered a group of brilliant men. A classicist and follower of John Stuart Mill in economic theory, he nevertheless encouraged such unorthodox thinkers as Thorstein Veblen and Wesley C. Mitchell. He edited (1892–1933) the Journal of Political Economy. Laughlin's chief interests were currency and monetary problems, and he served as adviser to various state and national governments. In 1894–95 he reorganized the monetary system of Santo Domingo. He later urged reform of the U.S. Federal Reserve Act. Important among his prolific writings is A New Exposition of Money, Credit, and Prices (1931).