In this paper we study the inefficiencies of the monetary equilibrium and optimal monetary policies in a search economy. We show that the same frictions that give fiat money a positive value generate an inefficient quantity of goods in each trade and an inefficient number of trades (or search decisions). The Friedman rule eliminates the first inefficiency and the Hosios rule the second. A monet...

The names Milton Friedman and John Taylor are associated with different monetary policy rules; but, as shown in this paper, the difference between their perceptions of how the economy works is not great. The monetary policy rules advanced by Taylor and Friedman are compared by linking the rules to the two economists’ underlying views about nominal rigidity, the source of trade-offs, the sources...

W. V. Quine famously argues that though all knowledge is empirical, mathematics is entrenched relative to physics and the special sciences. Further, entrenchment accounts for the necessity of mathematics relative to these other disciplines. Michael Friedman challenges Quine’s view by appealing to historicism, the thesis that the nature of science is illuminated by taking into account its histor...

Although for many years insects were believed to be insensitive to curare (Harlow, 1958; Hopf, 1952; Krupp, Lendle & Stapenhorst, 1952; Roeder, 1948, 1953; Roeder & Weiant, 1950; Usherwood, 1963), the recent report of Larsen, Miller & Yamamoto (1966) has demonstrated that insects are, indeed, sensitive to curare. Subsequent investigations (McCann, 1966; Flattum, Friedman & Larsen, 1967; Friedma...