Robert W. Clower

Robert Wayne Clower (February 13, 1926 – May 2, 2011) was an American economist. He is credited with having largely created the field of stock-flow analysis in economics and with seminal works on the microfoundations of monetary theory and macroeconomics.

Major contributions Clower is credited with having largely created the field of stock-flow analysis in economics.

In seminal papers that advanced strong methodological positions and set an agenda for subsequent research, Clower formalized and reformulated: Keynesian theory as disequilibrium analysis in contrast to standard general equilibrium theory, thereby generalizing (or rejecting) Walras' law and standard price theory. To this end, he proposed the 'dual-decision hypothesis' in which realized transaction quantities affect adjustments in output at other than full-employment equilibrium but not at full-employment equilibrium. This, he argued, was implicit in Keynes's work to explain how full-employment equilibrium is only a special case. Such quantity constraints introduce nonlinearities that complicate dynamic stability of the economic system as to full-employment equilibrium and require a distinction between notional and effective demand. Monetary theory to incorporate explicitly the difference between a money economy and barter economy such that "in sharp contrast with established [microeconomic] theory, money commodities play a peculiar and central role in shaping prevailing forces of excess demand." It is here that his cash-in-advance constraint, now often referred to as the Clower constraint was introduced.

Early life and professional positions Robert Clower grew up in Pullman, Washington, where he was born on February 13, 1926. His father, F.W. Clower, was a professor of economics there at Washington State College. After high-school graduation, he joined the army, serving thirty-one months before returning to the U.S. where he enrolled at Washington State in the summer of 1946. He received a B.A. degree in Economics there in 1948 (highest honors). When his father became ill in 1948, he was tapped to fill in for his father's classes, in which he had been enrolled after intense earlier reading. He was promoted to Associate Professor upon his father's death for completion of the term and demoted to Instructor in the next term. He received an M.A. degree there in 1949.

Clower continued postgraduate work as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. There, he studied under John R. Hicks and received a B.Litt. degree in 1952. On re-examination, he was awarded a Doctor of Letters degree in 1978.

Subsequent positions as a professor of economics or administrator included: Washington State College (later, University), 1952–1957 University of Punjab, Lahore, West Pakistan, 1954–1956 Northwestern University, 1958–1971, also department Chairman, 1958–65 Director, Economic Survey of Liberia, 1961–1962 Makerere College, Kampala, Uganda, 1965, Summer University of Essex 1965–1966, 1968–1969, the latter also Dean, School of Social Studies UCLA, 1971–1986, Professor Emeritus, 1987-2011 Washington State University, 1978–1980, Adjunct Professor University of South Carolina, 1986–2001; Distinguished Professor Emeritus, 2001-.

Other responsibilities included: Managing Editor, Economic Inquiry, 1973–1979 Editor, American Economic Review, 1981-85 President, Western Economic Association, 1987. President, Southern Economic Association, 1992-93.

Clower was a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He died in 2011 at Columbia, South Carolina.