White has been influenced by[6] and writes about the
Austrian School of Economics and considers himself an "economist who values the Austrian tradition."[7][8] He has analyzed the theory and history of
free banking, a system under which commercial banks and market forces control the provision of banking services.[9] He supports "depoliticizing the supply of money," considers "free market monetary arrangements" feasible and argues that market monetary institutions "can more credibly be found by contract to perform as desired."[10]
White's Free Banking in Britain analyzes the efficient systems of free banking in Scotland for 128 years until it was suppressed by the British Parliament which was having problems with its own banking system.[11] The book brought respectability in academic economics to the idea of free banking. However, some supporters of free banking who prefer
commodity backed currency to private
fractional reserve currency disagree with his portrayal of the Scottish banking system as truly free.[12][13] White has countered their arguments.[6] However, White does not dismiss the possibility that in a free market people might prefer a commodity standard, such as the
gold standard.[14]
White's 1999 book The Theory of Monetary Institutions is a theoretical and historical account of both existing and alternative monetary regimes used as an advanced undergraduate and graduate-level economics text. Professor
Steve Hanke writes that "White provides a uniquely insightful perspective into a difficult and controversial area, and his arguments and analysis are unbeatable."[15]
White, who has been a visiting scholar at the
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,[2] frequently has criticized the
Federal Reserve System.[16] He has written that the economics profession is greatly influenced by the Federal Reserve because of the millions of dollars in research grants it supplies to academics.[17][18] White has been quoted as saying that nationalized banks "divert money to the most vote-productive uses rather than the most economically productive uses."[19] White's view on the usefulness of transferring digital money via cellphone[20] and on his criticism of
Limited Purpose Banking have been mentioned in mainstream publications.[21]
White received an Honorary Doctoral Degree at
Universidad Francisco Marroquín in 2011 due his research on monetary policy and monetary history.[22]
Books
The Clash of Economic Ideas: The Great Policy Debates and Experiments of the Last Hundred Years, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2012,
ISBN978-1107012424
^Lawrence H. White, "The Research Program of Austrian Economics," in Roger Koppl, Explorations in Austrian Economics, Volume 11 of Advances in Austrian economics, Emerald Group Publishing, 2008
p. 12,
ISBN978-1-84855-330-9
^Lawrence H. White, "Depoliticizing the Supply of Money," in Thomas D. Willett, Political business cycles: the political economy of money, inflation, and unemployment, Duke Press Policy Studies, Duke University Press, 1988,
p. 460,
ISBN978-0-8223-0842-3
^Lawrence H. White, "Free Banking and the Gold Standard," in Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., The Gold Standard: Perspectives in the Austrian School, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1992,
pp. 113–128,
ISBN978-0-945466-11-6.