Economists

Robert L. Hetzel

Robert L. Hetzel was an economist in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond from 1975 to 2018. At the time of his retirement, Hetzel was a senior economist and research advisor.

Bank Publications

Economic Quarterly, Fourth Quarter 2016

The Rise and Fall of the Quantity Theory in Nineteenth Century Britain: Implications for Early Fed Thinking

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Brief, April 2015, No. 15-04

Nominal GDP: Target or Benchmark?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Third Quarter 2014

Should Greece Remain in the Eurozone?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Second Quarter 2014

The Real Bills Views of the Founders of the Fed

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Second Quarter 2013

The Monetarist-Keynesian Debate and the Phillips Curve: Lessons from the Great Inflation

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Second Quarter 2012

Does Monetarism Retain Relevance?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Brief, November 2009, No. 09-11

Rolling Back the Financial Safety Net

Robert L. Hetzel and Stephen Slivinski

Economic Quarterly, Spring 2009

Should Increased Regulation of Bank Risk-Taking Come from Regulators or from the Market?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Spring 2009

Monetary Policy in the 2008--2009 Recession

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Spring 2008

What is the Monetary Standard, Or, How Did the Volcker-Greenspan FOMCs Tame Inflation?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Winter 2007

The Contributions of Milton Friedman to Economics

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Summer 2006

Making the Systematic Part of Monetary Policy Transparent

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Spring 2005

What Difference Would an Inflation Target Make?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Summer 2004

How Do Central Banks Control Inflation?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Summer 2003

Japanese Monetary Policy and Deflation

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Spring 2002

German Monetary History in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: From the Deutsche Mark to the Euro

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Winter 2002

German Monetary History in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Winter 2001

The Treasury-Fed Accord: A New Narrative Account

Robert L. Hetzel and Ralph F. Leach

Economic Quarterly, Winter 2001

After the Accord: Reminiscences on the Birth of the Modern Fed

Robert L. Hetzel and Ralph F. Leach

Economic Quarterly, Spring 2000

The Taylor Rule: Is It a Useful Guide to Understanding Monetary Policy?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Winter 1999

Japanese Monetary Policy: A Quantity Theory Perspective

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Winter 1998

Arthur Burns and Inflation

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Spring 1997

The Case for a Monetary Rule in a Constitutional Democracy

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Spring 1996

Sterilized Foreign Exchange Intervention: The Fed Debate in the 1960s

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Winter 1995

An Empirical Measure of the Real Rate of Interest

Robert M. Darin and Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Summer 1994

A Shift-Adjusted M2 Indicator for Monetary Policy

Robert M. Darin and Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Spring 1994

The Free Trade Debate: The Illusion of Security Versus Growth

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Quarterly, Summer 1993

A Quantity Theory Framework for Monetary Policy

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Sep/Oct, 1992

How Useful Is M2 Today?

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Jan/Feb, 1992

Indexed Bonds as an Aid to Monetary Policy

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Nov/Dec, 1991

Too Big to Fail: Origins, Consequences, and Outlook

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, May/Jun, 1990

Free Enterprise and Central Banking in Formerly Communist Countries

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Mar/Apr, 1990

A Mandate for Price Stability

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Mar/Apr, 1990

Maintaining Price Stability: A Proposal

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Sep/Oct, 1989

M2 and Monetary Policy

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Sep/Oct, 1988

The Monetary Responsibilities of a Central Bank

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Jul/Aug, 1987

Henry Thornton: Seminal Monetary Theorist and Father of the Modern Central Bank

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Mar/Apr, 1986

Monetary Policy in the Early 1980s

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Nov/Dec, 1985

The Rules versus Discretion Debate over Monetary Policy in the 1920s

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Nov/Dec, 1984

A Monetarist Money Demand Function

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Nov/Dec, 1984

The Behavior of the M1 Demand Function in the Early 1980s

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, May/Jun, 1983

The Relationship between Money and Expenditure in 1982

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Jul/Aug, 1982

The October 1979 Regime of Monetary Control and the Behavior of the Money Supply in 1980

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, May/Jun, 1981

The Quantity Theory Tradition and the Role of Monetary Policy

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, May/Jun, 1978

The Cause of the Dollar Depreciation

Robert L. Hetzel and Thomas A. Lawler

Economic Review, Sep/Oct, 1977

A Primer on the Importance of the Money Supply

Robert L. Hetzel

Economic Review, Jan/Feb, 1976

Predicting the Rate of Inflation in 1976

Robert L. Hetzel
Working Papers

January 2018, No. 18-02

Allan Meltzer: How He Underestimated His Own Contribution to the Modern Concept of a Central Bank

Robert L. Hetzel

January 2018, No. 18-01

The Evolution of U.S. Monetary Policy

Robert L. Hetzel

July 2017, No. 17-09

What Remains of Milton Friedman's Monetarism?

Robert L. Hetzel

September 2016, No. 16-11R

A Proposal to Clarify the Objectives and Strategy of Monetary Policy (Revised January 2017)

Robert L. Hetzel

August 2016, No. 16-10

What Caused the Great Recession in the Eurozone?

Robert L. Hetzel

January 2016, No. 16-01

Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy from the Formation of the Federal Reserve until Today

Robert L. Hetzel and Gary Richardson

December 2015, No. 15-16

What Is the Monetary Standard?

Robert L. Hetzel

May 2015, No. 15-04R

Should Greece Remain in the Eurozone? (Revised July 2015)

Robert L. Hetzel

July 2013, No. 13-07R

Can Monetarists Explain Recession in the Eurozone? (Revised August 2015)

Robert L. Hetzel

February 2004, No. 04-1

Price Stability and Japanese Monetary Policy

Robert L. Hetzel

October 1986, No. 86-6

A Critique of Theories of Money Stock Determination

Robert L. Hetzel

May 1984, No. 84-2

The Formulation of Monetary Policy

Robert L. Hetzel

May 1984, No. 84-1

Monetary Policy in the Early 1980's

Robert L. Hetzel
Other Work

The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
"Milton Friedman and Liberty." Region Focus, Winter 2007.
"Remembering Milton Friedman: The Power of Markets." Richmond Times Dispatch, November 29, 2006.
"Friedman, Milton." In An Encyclopedia of Keynesian Economics, edited by Thomas Cate, 191-194. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1997.
"A Better Way to Fight Inflation." Wall Street Journal, April 25, 1991.
"The Political Economy of Monetary Policy." In The Political Economy of American Monetary Policy, edited by Thomas Mayer, 99-114. Cambridge Press, 1989.
The Relevance of Adam Smith. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 1977.

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