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RICHARD KAHN AND THE STABILIZATION OF COMMODITY PRICES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2017

Annalisa Rosselli
Annalisa Rosselli*
Affiliation:
University of Rome Tor Vergata.
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Abstract

This paper reconstructs an important and little-known part of the activity of Richard Kahn in the 1950s, both as researcher and as policy advisor, which centered on the drafting of a book for the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Never actually published by the FAO for reasons clarified in this paper, the book dealt with fluctuations in the prices of primary products and how best to curb them. Offering a novel development of an idea first proposed by John Maynard Keynes, Kahn advocates the creation of buffer stocks managed by a supranational authority endowed with ample discretionary powers. The paper presents a complete reconstruction of Kahn’s views on the advantages of buffer stocks as an instrument to stabilize commodity prices, of the context in which these views took shape, and of the way they tied in with other parts of his economic theory and were reflected in his assessment of the commodity international agreements of the time to limit fluctuations in the prices of primary products. It thus fills a significant gap in our knowledge of one of the great economists of the twentieth century.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 483 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2017 

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