Harry Gordon Johnson

Johnson graduated in 1943 from the University of Toronto and received his doctorate fifteen years later. He was an Economics Professor at the University of Manchester in England, and later at the University of Chicago. He was named an Officer of the Or der of Canada by the Canadian Government in 1976, and was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association in 1977. His main interests in economics were monetary policy, international trade, and international finance.

Johnson was incredibly prolific throughout his career...writing "526 professional articles, 41 books and pamphlets, and over 150 book reviews. He also gave a prodigious number of speeches." He is the author of what is known among economists as the "possibility theorem", which states that "a country with monopoly power in some good could impose a tariff and be better off, even if other countries retaliated against the tariff. It showed that such a tariff could improve the country's well -being, not that it was likely to." He was a fervent believer in free trade and thus was quite critical of his home country (Canada), for its numerous protectionist policies.

Johnson also attempted to measure Britain's money supply over time, the result of which "led to other more careful and detailed studies of the British money supply."

Major Works by Harry Gordon Johnson :

• British Monetary Statistics
  
• The Canadian Quandry: Economic Problems and Policies
  
• Essays in Monetary Economics
  
• The 'General Theory' after Twenty-five Years
  
• The Keynesian Revolution and the Monetarist Counter-Revolution
  
• Optimum Tariffs and Retaliation