Mentor of Free Banking Economics

Lawrence H. White (born 1954, Los Angeles, California) is a prominent economist specializing in free banking, monetary history, and the theory of banking systems without central bank intervention. His work has been influential in advocating for competitive currency issuance and analyzing historical episodes of free banking.

White is best known for his contributions to free banking theory, monetary policy alternatives, and historical banking systems, particularly the Scottish free banking system of the 18th and 19th centuries. He has argued that private banks, when left to issue currency competitively, tend to maintain monetary stability without the need for government intervention. His work contrasts centralized monetary control with decentralized, market-driven banking systems.

His major works include Free Banking in Britain (1984), which analyzes the success of the Scottish free banking system and its implications for modern monetary policy, and The Theory of Monetary Institutions (1999), which explores the evolution of money and banking institutions. White has also written extensively on competing monetary standards, including the gold standard and cryptocurrency-based systems.

White has held academic positions at New York University, the University of Georgia, and George Mason University. As a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, he continues to research and promote free-market alternatives to central banking, influencing both academic discourse and policy discussions on monetary reform.