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Editor's Introduction

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, July, 2001

THIS JULY ISSUE OF THE AJES consists of a collection of original and well-crafted articles about one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, Harry Gordon Johnson. Johnson was influential not only because his journal articles and other publications numbered over 500 and saturated several fields, not to speak of the college reading lists, but because he served as a teacher, role model, and mentor to an important generation of talented students. Professors Max Gorden, J. Allan Hynes, and Richard G. Lipsey illuminate these connections in their contributions to this issue.

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Harry Johnson's editorial work included the prestigious Journal of Political Economy and it was during those years of service that he commuted between classrooms that were located on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. His reputation as a relentless world traveler is touched upon by Harry Johnson's wife and collaborator, Elizabeth Johnson Simpson, in her contribution. Gordon's energy was apparently limitless and his legacy well-established during his lifetime. At Columbia University where I prepared for my graduate examinations, the urban legend told of an economist who could sit up all night on an airplane drinking undiluted Scotch whiskey and cranking out carefully crafted scholarly articles by the time both the airplane and the contents of the bottle touched down. Several of these Johnson articles made their way to my study desk. Whatever truth there was to the urban legend about the drinking, Harry Johnson's essays were marvelous exercises, laced with logic and overall coherence.

As a Ph.D. candidate in the 1970s, I was helped by Johnson's review articles. They organized and neatly summarized the main findings of large sections of economic literature. I know at Columbia University during the late 1960s and no doubt for years after I left, a close reading of a Harry Johnson survey article was often the best preparation for the orals in certain fields such as macroeconomics and/or international trade and finance.

The last part of the 20th century made the simple "closed economy" of the Keynesian model something of a relic-an antique form of modeling from an earlier, less global age. The macro of this 20th century needs to be "internationalized" from get go and the foundations of this development are in Johnson's work and those of his close collaborators as Professor Dimand shows in his article below. The balance of payments difficulties were not just matters of concern for the bankers frightened of contagions of "hot money" flowing in and out of the major city banks, but sometimes reflected important trends at work in the real sectors of the economy. Johnson, as much as any economist of his age, clarified those connections, Finance and economic development were not unrelated events. They are integrally connected and Harry Johnson was at the vanguard clarifying what was going on between the financial and real sectors of the economy.

All of the essays in this issue were prepared for the Harry G. Johnson Remembrance and Appreciation session that was held on July 3, 2000 at the History of Economics Society meeting at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. They appear here in print for the first time. But how could such a small army of participants fit together in one small session in Vancouver? The answer is that neither myself nor Professor Donald Moggridge who assisted me with the initial invitation list suspected that so many of the invitees would accept our invitation and travel to Vancouver (or else prepare written comments to be read before the assembled group). It soon became clear that Johnson's influence and significance as an economist was enormous and he had made dear friends who had something more to say about the man in earlier forums and contexts. All this was happening now nearly a quarter of a century after his death!

Professor John Davis was gracious about our embarrassment of riches and offered to run two consecutive two-hour sessions in order to accommodate all of the presentations from the nearly one dozen admirers and friends of Harry G. Johnson who now came together to remember him and to reassess his scientific work. Johnson was dead at 54 years of age but in that relatively short space of an academic career cut short he made an enormous contribution to the economics of the second half of the 20th century.

Johnson was a master at synthesis and giving shape to lines of thought that early generations of economists had developed. It was not Johnson's style to claim too much originality for his own contributions. His originality is embedded instead in the expositions he offered. In the composite essay that heads this issue, Professor Max Corden points out that Harry Johnson viewed science as proceeding in a cumulative fashion and evidencing progress. This point is corroborated by Professor Dimand in his contribution. It was therefore simply not Harry's style to claim revolutionary departures. As J. Allan Hynes points out, the originality was there in what are now considered in retrospect to have been revolutionary departures. Unfortunately, these revolutionary departures bear the name of other economists rather than Harry Johnson. There is some need to set the record straight. Much more credit and recognition of his work are needed. As both Paul Samuelson and Max Corden point out, paraphrasing James Tobin, in subtl e ways the last part of the 20th century was "the age of Johnson." This issue of the AJES will have done its job if it helps remind historians of the enormous contribution and influence of this North American legend.

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Editor's Introduction

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, July, 2001

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