George Selgin

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American economist (born 1957)

title: "George Selgin" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["austrian-school-economists", "1957-births", "living-people", "university-of-georgia-faculty", "monetary-economists", "drew-university-alumni"] description: "American economist (born 1957)" topic_path: "geography/austria" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Selgin" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American economist (born 1957) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox economist"]

FieldValue
nameGeorge Selgin
school_traditionFree banking

| | image | George Selgin at Ron Paul Fed Lecture Series.jpg | | caption | Selgin speaks at the Ron Paul Fed Lecture Series in 2012. | | birth_date | | | nationality | American | | institution | The University of Georgia | | field | Macroeconomics, monetary theory, banking theory, and monetary history | | alma_mater | New York University (PhD) 1986 Drew University (B.A.) 1979 | | influences | Friedman, Hayek, David Laidler, White, Wicksell, Leland Yeager | | signature | | | repec_prefix | f | | repec_id | pse331 | ::

| name = George Selgin | school_tradition = Free banking

| image = George Selgin at Ron Paul Fed Lecture Series.jpg | image_size = | caption = Selgin speaks at the Ron Paul Fed Lecture Series in 2012. | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = American | institution = The University of Georgia | field = Macroeconomics, monetary theory, banking theory, and monetary history | alma_mater = New York University (PhD) 1986 Drew University (B.A.) 1979 | influences = Friedman, Hayek, David Laidler, White, Wicksell, Leland Yeager | contributions = | awards = | signature = | repec_prefix = f | repec_id = pse331

George Selgin (; born February 15, 1957) is an American economist. Before retiring in July, 2025, he was a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, the founding Director of its Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, and editor-in-chief of that Center's online publication, Alt-M. He is also Professor Emeritus of economics at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, an Honorary Professor at Francisco Marroquin University, and an associate editor of Econ Journal Watch. Selgin previously taught at George Mason University, the University of Hong Kong, and West Virginia University

Research

Selgin's research covers a broad range of topics within the field of monetary economics, including monetary history, macroeconomic theory, and the history of monetary thought. He is one of the founders, along with Kevin Dowd and Lawrence H. White, of the Modern Free Banking School,{{cite journal | last = Gedeon | first = Shirley | title = The modern free banking school: a review | journal = Journal of Economic Issues | volume = 31 | pages =209–222 | year = 1997 | doi = 10.1080/00213624.1997.11505898 |last = Hayek |first = Friedrich |title = Denationalisation of Money: The Argument Refined |publisher = Institute of Economic Affairs |year = 1976 |location = London |url = http://www.iea.org.uk/record.jsp?type=book&ID=431 |access-date = 2009-08-23 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101209141530/http://www.iea.org.uk/record.jsp?type=book&ID=431 |archive-date = 2010-12-09 |url-status = dead | first = George | author2=Lawrence H. White | title = How would the invisible hand handle money? | journal = Journal of Economic Literature | volume = 32 | issue = 4 | pages = 1718–1749 | publisher = American Economic Association | jstor = 2728792 | date = December 1994 }} The free bankers argue that, viewed in light of such a theory, financial crises and business cycles are largely attributable to misguided government interference with freely-evolved and competitive monetary arrangements, including legislation granting central banks exclusive rights to issue paper currency.E.g., {{cite journal |last = Selgin |first = George |title = Legal restrictions, financial weakening, and the lender of last resort |journal = The Cato Journal |volume = 9 |issue = 2 |date = Fall 1989 |url = http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj9n2/cj9n2-9.pdf |access-date = 2009-08-23 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090727020925/https://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj9n2/cj9n2-9.pdf |archive-date = 2009-07-27 |url-status = dead

Selgin is also known for his advocacy of a "productivity norm" for monetary policy—an ideal according to which the growth-rate of nominal gross domestic product should be such as will allow the (output) price level to decline along with goods' real (unit) costs of production—that is, at a rate opposite the growth rate of total factor productivity. According to Selgin, by preventing mild deflation in response to productivity gains, monetary authorities risk inadvertently fueling unsustainable booms or economic bubbles, setting the stage for consequent busts and recession. Because it requires that aggregate spending grow at a steady rate equal to the trend growth rate of weighted factor input growth, Selgin's ideal amounts to a version of nominal income targeting, which helped to inspire and inform the post-Great Recession movement favoring NGDP targeting.

Selgin is considered a Bitcoin OG ("Original Gangsta"), having taken part in the original cypherpunk mailing list (with Wei Dei and Nick Szabo) that led to Bitcoin's invention, which Hal Finney and Nick Szabo say he helped to inspire. He is also an expert on the history and economics of old-fashioned metallic coinage. His book Good Money tells the story of the private minting of coins during Great Britain's Industrial Revolution. He is one of the foremost authorities on Gresham's law—the oldest of all economic laws concerning money.

Since he joined the Cato Institute, Selgin has become a leading critic of some of the Federal Reserve's post-crisis policies, including its decision to permanently switch to an ample reserves or "floor" operating system, and its decision to build a "real time" retail payments network to compete with one established by commercial bankers. Most recently, he has taken on the growing movement to have the Fed make use of its quantitative easing powers, not solely to combat recessions, but as a means for funding ambitious government projects that can bypass Congress's normal appropriations process.

Selgin is the twin brother of author and illustrator Peter Selgin and the half-brother of anthropologist Clare Selgin Wolfowitz. His other half-sister, Ann Selgin Levy, is a fabric artist and culinary author. His father, Paul Selgin, was an inventor whose numerous patents include many for optical measuring devices for use in manufacturing.

Education

Published works

Books

  • False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933-1947 (2025).
  • The Menace of Fiscal QE (2020).
  • Floored! How a Misguided Fed Experiment Deepened and Prolonged the Great Recession (2018).
  • Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy (2018).
  • Money: Free & Unfree (2017).
  • Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage (2008). .
  • Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy (1997). .
  • Bank Deregulation and Monetary Order (1996). .
  • Readings in Money and Banking (1995). .
  • The Theory of Free Banking: Money Supply under Competitive Note Issue (1988). .

Scholarly articles

References

References

  1. "Alt-M".
  2. "Econ Journal Watch (EJW)".
  3. Selgin, George. (Spring–Summer 1990). "Monetary Equilibrium and the Productivity Norm of Price-Level Policy". The Cato Journal.
  4. White, William R.. (2006). "Is price stability enough?". [[Bank for International Settlements]].
  5. Szabo, Nick. (2018-07-23). "Dr. Selgin was on the mailing list with Wei Dai and myself where in 1998 cryptocurrency (bit gold, and a bit later b-money) was invented. His description of free banking was very inspirational and informative.".
  6. Selgin, George. (2015-04-01). "Synthetic commodity money". Journal of Financial Stability.
  7. Selgin, George. (2008). "Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage". The University of Michigan Press and the [[Independent Institute]].
  8. (June 9, 2003). "Gresham's Law".
  9. Selgin, George. (2018). "Gresham's Law". Springer.
  10. (2018-10-22). "Floored!: How a Misguided Fed Experiment Deepened and Prolonged the Great Recession".
  11. (2019-09-25). "Facilitating Faster Payments in the U.S.".
  12. (2020-02-11). "The Menace of Fiscal QE".

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austrian-school-economists1957-birthsliving-peopleuniversity-of-georgia-facultymonetary-economistsdrew-university-alumni