{{short description|American economist}}
{{Infobox economist | school_tradition = Institutional economics | name = Morris Copeland | image = Morris A. Copeland.png | caption = Morris Copeland | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1895|08|06}} | birth_place = Rochester, New York | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1989|5|4|1895|08|06}} | death_place = Sarasota, Florida | field = Political economics | influences = Thorstein Veblen, Walter W. Stewart, Wesley Mitchell, John Maurice Clark<ref name=Daw1/> | institution =Cornell University 1921–1930, 1949–1965<br />NBER 1944–1959 <ref name=corn1/> | contributions = Flow of Funds analysis<br>Monetary circuit theory<br>Social accounting<br> Stock-Flow Consistency }}
'''Morris Albert Copeland''' (August 6, 1895{{spaced ndash}}May 4, 1989) was an American economist who criticized 20th-century macroeconomic theory, and who contributed to the development of modern flow of funds theory.<ref name=nyt1>{{citation|title=Morris A. Copeland, 93, Is Dead|first=Glenn|last=Fowler|date=May 24, 1989|journal=New York Times|accessdate=2016-10-01|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/24/obituaries/morris-a-copeland-93-is-dead.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Jacob |date=1972 |title=Copeland's Moneyflows after Twenty-Five Years: A Survey |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2720888 |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |jstor=2720888 |issn=0022-0515}}</ref>
==Life== Born and raised in Rochester New York, Copeland began his university education at Amherst with an interest in philosophy and Greek. Late in his undergraduate studies he encountered teachers Walter W. Stewart and Walton Hamilton and became fascinated with social accounting and economics.<ref name=ruth1 >{{citation |title=The institutionalist movement in American economics 1918–1947: Science and social control |last=Rutherford |first= Malcolm |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2011|page=97}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Flow of Funds Analysis: A Handbook for Practitioners|first1=John C.|last1= Dawson|publisher= M.E. Sharpe|year=1996|chapter= Copeland as Social Accountant | isbn= 978-1563246456 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YUZv_8BvlLAC&pg=PA94 |page= 94}}</ref> After graduating in 1917 he went on to the University of Chicago for his graduate studies where he came under the influence of Wesley Mitchell, a man who he came to regard as his mentor and good friend.<ref name=millar1>{{citation |last= Millar |first= J.R. |title= In Memoriam: Morris A. Copeland, 1895-1989 |journal= American Journal of Economics and Sociology |volume= 49 |number= 1 |year= 1990 |pages= 45–46 |url= http://booksc.org/book/46427162 |accessdate= 2016-10-02 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161120091242/http://booksc.org/book/46427162 |archive-date= 2016-11-20 |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref name=bonis1>{{citation|first1=Riccardo |last1=De Bonis|first2=Alfredo |last2=Gigliobianco|chapter=The Origins of Financial Accounts in the United States and Italy: Copeland, Baffi and the Institutions|title= The Financial Systems of Industrial Countries: Evidence from Financial Accounts |editor-first1=Riccardo|editor-last1= De Bonis |editor-first2=Alberto Franco |editor-last2=Pozzolo| publisher=Springer Science & Business Media | date =5 May 2012 |page=18 |chapter-url=https://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/9783642231100-c1.pdf}}</ref> After his doctoral thesis on institutional theory of value supervised by John Maurice Clark, Copeland emerged as an "unreconstructed institutionalist".<ref>{{citation| title = The Economic Mind in American Civilization | volume=5| last=Dorfman |first=Joseph|publisher=Viking|location=New York |date=1959| quote=As cited in Dawson (1996) p. 100|chapter=XVII }}</ref>
After receiving his Ph.D. in 1921, Copeland began teaching economics at Cornell and became a full professor in 1928.<ref name=nyt1/> Copeland left a lasting impression on generations of students with a socratic teaching style that motivated students to come to their own conclusions. While his manner was described as "courtly", he subjected his students to intense challenge, both with their deductions and the empirical support for their propositions.<ref name=corn1>{{citation |url= https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/19191/Copeland_Morris_A_1989.pdf |publisher= Cornell University |title=Morris A. Copeland: August 6, 1895 — May 4, 1989| first1=Fred |last1=Kahn |first2= George| last2= Staller|first3=Tom|last3=Davis}}</ref>
==Contributions to economics == Copeland shared the institutionalist skepticism of "economic laws" that purport to be applicable outside of specific historical institutional contexts. He viewed orthodox theory more as expressions of doctrine rather than empirical observation. For example, he saw the quantity theory of money as a mathematical device convenient for neoclassical doctrine rather than as a hypothesis that emerged from solid empirical observation of economic data.<ref name=Daw1>{{citation|title=Flow of Funds Analysis: A Handbook for Practitioners|editor-first1=John C.|editor-last1= Dawson|publisher= M.E. Sharpe|year=1996|isbn=978-1563246456|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YUZv_8BvlLAC&pg=PA80 |page= 80}}</ref> Rather than base economics on introspection and mental states that cannot be empirically verified, he wished to engage in what he viewed as a more science-based approach which necessarily proceeds first from observations about an economy's actual behavior. While organizing principles might be inferred from such observations, the institutionalist perspective was that they are in constant flux and subject to a broader social context.<ref>De Bonis (2012) p. 24.</ref> For this reason Copeland published not just in economic publications, but in journals of philosophy, political science, psychology, statistics and accounting.<ref name=corn1/>
===Copeland's money flow model=== Copeland is recognized for his pioneering work in the study of money flows. He recognized that the social accounting perspective which was used in the study of national income could be enlarged and applied to the study of money flows.<ref name=levy1>{{citation |title= Stock-flow Consistent Modeling through the Ages|first1=Eugenio |last1 = Caverzasi |first2= Antoine |last2 = Godin |journal=Levy Economics Institute Working Paper Collection |publisher= Levy Economics Institute |year = 2013 | issn = 1547-366X |url= http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_745.pdf|accessdate= 2016-10-02| page=5}}</ref> In 1949 he introduced his quadruple entry principle - a scheme enlarged on by Hyman Minsky to emphasize the time-dated pattern of cash commitments to examine the microeconomic basis of financial system instability.<ref name=lavoie1>{{citation |last=Lavoie |first= Marc |title= The stock-flow consistent approach: background, features, and objectives |url= http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~robinson/Lavoie/Presentations/en/E27%2520The%2520stock-flow%2520consistent%2520approach.ppt}}</ref><ref name=Mehrling1>{{citation | last =Mehrling| first=Perry G.| title=Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis and Modern Economics| date=30 September 2015|url=http://www.perrymehrling.com/2015/09/minskys-financial-instability-hypothesis-and-modern-economics/}}</ref> Copeland further developed and applied his perspective in his book "''A Study of Moneyflows in the United States''". According to Copeland, when you look at the economy from the micro perspective of money flows, it provides a powerful new way making phenomena visible that are simply abstracted away by the orthodox Keynesian and Monetarist models. Copeland's flow of funds set of accounts provides an alternative framework and analytical insights that is unavailable from either the Keynesian NIPA framework or the monetarist quantity theory of money framework.<ref name=Mehrling2>{{citation | last =Mehrling| first=Perry G.|contribution= Lecture 4: The Money View, Micro and Macro |publisher= Columbia University | title= Coursera course: Economics of Money and Banking |url= http://www.perrymehrling.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Lec-04-The-Money-View-Micro-and-Macro.pdf |page=6 }}</ref> His framework was later developed into Stock-flow consistent models.<ref name=levy1/> Copeland is recognized as an early Post Keynesian, presenting the view that "the changes Keynes introduced represented modifications of neoclassicism, not its rejection".<ref name=Godley1>{{citation | first1=Wynne | last1=Godley |author-link1= Wynne Godley |first2= Marc |last2= Lavoie|author-link2= Marc Lavoie |date=2007 |title= Monetary Economics: An Integrated Approach to Credit, Money, Income, Production and Wealth |publisher = Palgrave MacMillan |isbn= 978-0-230-50055-6| page=22}}</ref>
For his innovations in money flow theory, many colleagues believed that Copeland should have received the Nobel Prize.<ref name=millar1/>
===Public service=== In 1933 Copeland took leave to become executive secretary of the Central Statistical Board created by executive order as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to the Great Depression. For his statistical accomplishments in the early years of the New Deal, in 1936 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.<ref>[http://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm View/Search Fellows of the ASA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616161612/https://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm |date=2016-06-16 }}, accessed 2016-11-19.</ref><ref name=rutherford>{{citation| page= 108 |title= The Institutionalist Movement in American Economics, 1918–1947: Science and Social Control | first= Malcolm | last=Rutherford |publisher= Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-1107626089 | date= 19 September 2013 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XfX72hARkpsC&pg=PA108 }}</ref> In 1944, Copeland joined Mitchell at the National Bureau of Economic Research in order to work on money flows research, which after 1947 was continued under the auspices of the Federal Reserve.<ref>Rutherford (2013) p. 112.</ref> According to Jacob Cohen who in 1972 performed a review of money flow analysis since 1947, "the breadth of Copeland's moneyflows has been substantially narrowed in the hands of the Federal Reserve and foreign account-makers."<ref>{{citation|title=Flow of Funds Analysis: A Handbook for Practitioners|first1=Stephen P.|last1= Taylor|publisher= M.E. Sharpe|date=1991|chapter= From Moneyflows Accounts to Flow of Funds Accounts | isbn= 978-1563246456 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YUZv_8BvlLAC&pg=PA105 |page= 105}}</ref> As part of its integration into the National Income and Product Accounts system, John Dawson observes that Copeland's flow of funds analysis was compromised by removal of his money circuit calculations.<ref name=Daw1/>
==Publications== * (1949) "Social Accounting for Moneyflows." ''The Accounting Review'' 24(3): 254–264. * (1952) ''A Study in Moneyflows in the United States'', National Bureau of Economic Research/ Arno Press [https://papers.nber.org/books/cope52-1] * (1958) ''Fact and Theory in Economics: The Testimony of an Institutionalist'', University of Michigan/Cornell University Press * (1961) "[https://papers.nber.org/books/cope61-1 Trends in Government Financing]." National Bureau of Economic Research * (1964) ''Our Free Enterprise Economy''. Collier Macmillan {{ISBN|978-0023247903}} * (1966) ''Toward Full Employment in our Free Enterprise Economy''. University of Michigan/Fordham University Press * (1981) ''Essays in Socioeconomic Evolution''. Vantage Press
==See also== * History of macroeconomic thought
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
== External links ==
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078649 Finding aid to the Morris Albert Copeland papers at Columbia University]. [https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/rbml.html Rare Book & Manuscript Library] {{Presidents of the American Economic Association}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Morris Albert}} Category:1895 births Category:1989 deaths Category:Institutional economists Category:20th-century American economists Category:Post-Keynesian economists Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:Amherst College alumni Category:Cornell University faculty Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association Category:Presidents of the American Economic Association