Henry Thornton Lecture Series

The Henry Thornton Lecture was inaugurated in 1979 in the belief that no student of money and banking should be unfamiliar with the name and work of this 19th Century economist and banker. Renowned for a dozen different insights into the British monetary system during the Napoleonic era, Henry Thornton is best known for his one book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain (1802). Over the past quarter of a century the focus for this lecture has been monetary theory and monetary policy, whereas in 2006 there was a departure into the finance arena. However, the series retains both his name and, through its future contributors, continues the width of comprehension and analytical power so associated with Henry Thornton.

2022

The Henry Thornton Lecture was delivered by Professor Atif Mian, Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Finance at Princeton University, at Bayes Business School on the evening of Wednesday 11 May. Read more about this year's Henry Thornton Lecture.

Below is a list of past Henry Thornton Lectures that have been held at the Business School.

Past lectures

1970-1980

• 'The Prospects for an International Monetary System'
  Rt Hon Gordon Richardson
• 'A Century of British Market Interest Rates, 1874-1975'
  Dr Anna J. Schwartz (NBER).

1981-1990

• 'Turbulence in the Foreign Exchange Markets and Macroeconomic Policies'
  Professor Jacob A. Frenkel
• 'Macroeconomics after a Decade of Rational Expectations: Some Critical Issues'
  Professor Bennett T. McCallum
• 'The Uncertain Future of Monetary Policy'
  Professor Phillip Cagan
• 'Inflation Expectations: from Adaptive to Rational'
  Professor Michael Parkin
• 'The Disarray in Macroeconomics'
  Professor Karl Brunner
• 'Ricardo and Budget Deficits'
  Professor Robert J. Barro
• 'The Political Economy of International Organisations in International Money and Finance'
  Professor Roland Vaubel
• 'Speculative Booms and Crashes'
  Professor Robert J Shiller
• 'Central Banking Tasks in a European Monetary Union'
  Professor Niels Thygesen.

1991-2000

• 'Wage and Price Stickiness in Macroeconomics: An Historical Perspective'
  Professor David Laidler
• 'The Lender of Last Resort: Pushing the Doctrine Too Far?'
  Professor Charles P. Kindleberger
• 'Conduct of Monetary Policy in an Open Economy'
  Professor Helmut Schlesinger
• 'The Triumph of Paper Credit: Price Stability in a Paper Currency World'
  Dr Michael Mussa
• 'Central Bank Independence and Monetary Stability'
  Professor Otmar Issing
• 'What Does the Current Account Tell Us?'
  Professor Max Corden
• 'Regulating Financial Markets: A Critique and Some Proposals'
  Professor George Benston
• 'Why Regulate?'
  Mr Howard Davies, Chairman FSA
• 'Expectations'
  William Poole, President and CEO Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.

2001-2010

• 'The Thornton Effect: Monetary Instability Arising from Big War
  Professor Robert Mundell
• 'Exchange Rate Regime Choice in Historical Perspective'
  Professor Michael Bordo
• 'Global Imbalances and the Lessons from Bretton Woods'
  Barry Eichengreen
• 'Corporate default risk and its pricing. What are we missing?'
  Professor Darrell Duffie
• 'Are Banks Still Special?'
  Professor Anthony Saunders
• 'Effective Monetary Policy in a Low Interest Rate Environment'
  James Bullard, President and CEO Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.

2011-Present

• 'Monetary Policy and the Behaviour of Banks: Lessons from the 1930s for the 2010s'
  Professor Charles Calomiris, Columbia University
• 'Finance: economic lifeblood or toxin?'
  Professor Marco Pagano.