Alvin Hansen

Alvin Hansen (1887–1975) was an American economist who helped establish Keynesian economics in the United States and developed the theory of secular stagnation.

John Maynard Keynes: A British economist whose work transformed theories of employment, output, and government policy. Hansen became the leading American expositor of Keynes’s economic ideas.
Secular stagnation: A theory that an economy can face persistently inadequate investment and demand, producing prolonged underemployment. Hansen made this theory prominent in his 1938 presidential address.
Great Depression: A worldwide economic crisis beginning in 1929, marked by collapsing output, employment, and trade. The prolonged slump challenged Hansen’s earlier confidence in automatic economic recovery.
Employment Act of 1946: A United States law declaring federal responsibility to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. Hansen’s policy advocacy contributed to the climate behind this federal commitment.
Paul Samuelson: An American economist whose work unified and formalized major strands of modern economic theory. Samuelson was among the economists shaped by Hansen’s teaching at Harvard.
Keynesian economics: An approach to macroeconomics emphasizing aggregate demand and its influence on output and employment. Hansen adapted Keynesian demand analysis to explain long-term economic weakness.
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money: John Maynard Keynes’s 1936 book arguing that aggregate demand determines output and employment in the short run. Hansen’s influential interpretation helped introduce this work to American economists.
Council of Economic Advisers: A group of economists established by the Employment Act of 1946 to advise the U.S. president. Hansen helped shape the advisory institution created to guide national economic policy.
Lauchlin Currie: A Canadian-American economist who advocated Keynesian economic policy and advised the U.S. government. Currie was an early American advocate of Keynesian ideas alongside Hansen.
Aggregate demand: The total planned spending on final goods and services in an economy at a given price level. Hansen traced stagnation to insufficient demand for output and employment.

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Liquidity TrapRelated: Hansen connected weak investment prospects with persistent demand shortfalls and monetary limits.