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 micro-foundations 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: • Robert Clower, 1967. "A Reconsideration of the Microfoundations of Monetary Theory," Western Economic Journal, 6(1), p. 8. pp. 1-8 (press +)]. • _____, 1964. "Monetary History and Positive Economics," Journal of Economic History, 24(3), pp. 364-380. • _____, 1969b. "What Traditional Monetary Theory Really Wasn't," Canadian Journal of Economics. 2(2), pp. 299-302. • Joseph M. Ostroy, 1992. "Money and General Equilibrium Theory," sect. 2, Transaction Costs, The New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance. • Nobuhiro Kiyotaki and Randall Wright, 1993. "A Search-Theoretic Approach to Monetary Economics," American Economic Review, 83(1), pp. 63-77 (press +). • Robert W. Clower, 1987. Money and Markets. Cambridge. Description and chapter-preview links. Review extract of David Laidler. • _____,1994. "Economics as an Inductive Science," Southern Economic Journal, 60(4), pp. 805-814 (press +). Presidential address, SEA. • _____, 1995a. "Axiomatics in Economics," Southern Economic Journal, 62(2), pp. 307-319 (press +). • _____ 1995b, "On the Origin of Monetary Exchange," Economic Inquiry, 33(4), pp. 525-36. Abstract and reprint. • _____, 1995c. Economic Doctrine and Method: Selected Papers of R.W. Clower, Edward Elgar Publishing. Description. • _____, 1996. "Taking Markets Seriously: Groundwork for a Post-Walrasian Macroeconomics", with P.W. Howitt, in David Colander, ed., Beyond Microfoundations, pp. 21-37. • Peter Howitt, Elisabetta de Antoni, and Axel Leijonhufvud, ed., 1999. Money, Markets and Method: Essays in Honour of Robert W. Clower, Edward Elgar. Description.

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

Selected publications of Robert W. Clower