In Memoriam: Emeritus Professor Phillip Cagan (1927-2012)

Phillip David Cagan, author and scholar in the field of macroeconomics, Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and beloved father, passed away peacefully on June 15th, aged 85, in Palo Alto, California.  He made significant contributions to the field of economic science, most notably to monetary economics and the study of inflation. 

Prof. Cagan published over 100 books, journals, reviews, reports and pamphlets.  His Ph.D. dissertation, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” published as the leading chapter in the volume “Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money” (University of Chicago Press, 1956), was immediately acclaimed as a classic, and has continued to be a staple of reading lists of courses in monetary economics for more than 50 years.  It remains the definitive study of the problem of hyperinflation, the definitions and concepts of which provide the starting point for all subsequent work on this problem.