Richard Werner

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Richard Andreas Werner (born 5 January 1967) is a German banking and development economist who is a university professor at University of Winchester.

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He has proposed the "Quantity Theory of Credit", or "Quantity Theory of Disaggregated Credit", which disaggregates credit creation that are used for the real economy (GDP transactions), on the one hand, and financial transactions, on the other hand. [1] In 1995, he proposed a new monetary policy to swiftly deal with banking crises, which he called 'Quantitative Easing', and it was published in the Nikkei. [2] He also first used the expression "QE2" in public to refer to the need to implement 'true quantitative easing' as an expansion in credit creation. [3] His 2001 book Princes of the Yen was a number one general bestseller in Japan. In 2014, he published the first empirical evidence that each bank creates Money when it issues a new loan. [4]

Early life

In 1989, Werner earned a BSc in economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). During his postgraduate studies at Oxford University he spent over a year in Japan, studying at the University of Tokyo and working at the Nomura Research Institute. [5] His DPhil in economics was conferred by Oxford. In 1991, he became European Commission-sponsored Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute for Economics and Statistics at Oxford. [5] His 1991 discussion paper at the institute warned about the imminent 'collapse' of the Japanese banking system and the threat of the "greatest recession since the Great Depression". In Tokyo, he also became the first Shimomura Fellow at the Research Institute for Capital Formation at the Development Bank of Japan. He was a visiting researcher at the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies at the Bank of Japan; and he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Monetary and Fiscal Studies at the Ministry of Finance. [5]

Career

Werner was chief economist of Jardine Fleming from 1994 to 1998 and published several articles on the Japanese credit cycle and monetary policy, many of which are in Japanese. He joined the faculty of Sophia University in Tokyo (1997-2004) as a tenured assistant professor. [5] Werner was senior managing director and senior portfolio manager at Bear Stearns Asset Management. He worked at the University of Southampton (2004-2018), mainly as Chair and Professor in International Banking. [5] Werner becomes Professor of Banking and Finance at De Montfort University in 2018. [6] He is the founding director of the university's Centre for Banking, Finance and Sustainable Development and organiser of the European Conference on Banking and the Economy (ECOBATE), first held on 29 September 2011 in Winchester Guildhall, with Lord Adair Turner, FSA Chairman, as keynote speaker. From 2011 to 2019, he was a member of the ECB Shadow Council.[ citation needed ]

Werner has developed a theory of money creation [ broken anchor ] called the Quantity Theory of Credit, which is in line with Schumpeter's credit theory of money. [7] He has argued, since 1992, that the banking sector needs to be reflected appropriately in macroeconomic models since it is the main creator and allocator of the money supply, through the process of credit creation by individual banks. [8]

Werner's book Princes of the Yen , about the modern economic development of Japan, including the bubble of the 1990s and subsequent bust, was a number one general bestseller in Japan in 2001. [9] The book covers the monetary policy of the Bank of Japan specifically and central bank informal guidance of bank credit in general. [10]

Werner proposed a policy he called "quantitative easing" in Japan in 1994 and 1995. At the time working as chief economist of Jardine Fleming Securities (Asia) Ltd. in Tokyo, he used this expression during presentations to institutional investors in Tokyo. It is also, among others, in the title of an article he published on September 2, 1995, in the Nihon Keizai Shinbun (Nikkei). [11] According to Werner, he used this phrase in order to propose a new form of monetary stimulation policy by the central bank that relied neither on interest rate reductions (which Werner claimed in his Nikkei article would be ineffective) nor on the conventional monetarist policy prescription of expanding the money supply (e.g. through "printing money", expanding high-powered money, expanding bank reserves or boosting deposit aggregates such as M2 –all of which Werner also claimed would be ineffective). [12] Instead, Werner argued, it was necessary and sufficient for an economic recovery to boost "credit creation", through a number of measures. [11] He also suggested direct purchases of non-performing assets from the banks by the central bank; direct lending to companies and the government by the central bank; purchases of commercial paper, other debt, and equity instruments from companies by the central bank; and stopping the issuance of government bonds to fund the public sector borrowing requirement, instead having the government borrow directly from banks through a standard loan contract. [13] [14]

Werner is founding director and chairman of Local First Community Interest Company, which promotes the establishment of not-for-profit local community banks, modelled on the successful German local co-operative, Raiffeisen and Sparkasse savings banks that have enabled German small firms to become top exporters and job creators in Germany. [15]

In 2019, Werner took out a discrimination case against his employer, Southampton University, claiming he was discriminated against and ‘victimised’ in a ‘harassment and bullying’ campaign for being German and Christian, during his 14 years career at the university. The £2.5m payout was one of the largest awards ever made by a British tribunal and was so high because the university failed to defend itself. [16] In July 2019, after a successful appeal by the University, the judgement was set aside and the case was set to proceed in the usual fashion. Werner was then, in August 2020, granted permission to appeal the decision in the Employment Appeal Tribunal. [17] In the meantime Werner brought a discrimination claim against the University of Cambridge after they withdrew a conditional offer of employment in 2018. [18]

Selected works

Books
Chapters
Journals
Papers

Honors

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References

  1. ↑ Werner, R. A. (July 1997). "Towards a new monetary paradigm: A quantity theorem of disaggregated credit, with evidence from Japan". Kredit und Kapital. 30: 276–309.
  2. ↑ Richard A. Werner (1995), Keiki kaifuku, ryōteki kinyū kanwa kara, (How to Create a Recovery through ‘Quantitative Monetary Easing’), The Nihon Keizai Shinbun (Nikkei), ‘Keizai Kyōshitsu’ (‘Economics Classroom’), 2 September 1995 (morning edition), p. 26; English translation by T. John Cooke (November 2011)
  3. ↑ Richard Werner, "Keizai Kyoshitsu: Keiki kaifuku, ryoteiki kinyu kanwa kara," Nikkei, 2 September 1995. ‘QE2’ was first used publicly by Richard Werner live on CNBC on 22 September 2009. He argued that 'true quantitative easing' was needed, namely an expansion in productive credit creation. This required a second attempt by central banks, "a kind of QE2". Squawkbox, CNBC, live studio panel, 18:00-21:00 hrs London time, 22 September 2009. Meanwhile, the expression is today mainly used to refer to a second round of what Prof. Werner would consider the 'wrong type' of QE.
  4. ↑ Werner, Richard A. (2014). "How do banks create money, and why can other firms not do the same? An explanation for the coexistence of lending and deposit-taking". International Review of Financial Analysis . 36: 71–77. doi:10.1016/j.irfa.2014.10.013. hdl: 2086/17271 .
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 University of Southampton, Richard Werner; retrieved 2011-08-20
  6. ↑ "Professor Richard Werner".
  7. ↑ Richard A. Werner (1992), ‘Towards a quantity theory of disaggregated credit and international capital flows’, Paper presented at the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference, York, April 1993 and at the 5th Annual PACAP Conference on Pacific-Asian Capital Markets in Kuala Lumpur, June 1993
  8. ↑ Richard A. Werner (1992), ‘Towards a quantity theory of disaggregated credit and international capital flows’, later published as Werner, Richard A. (1997). ‘Towards a New Monetary Paradigm: A Quantity Theorem of Disaggregated Credit, with Evidence from Japan’, Kredit und Kapital, vol. 30, no. 2, July 1997, pp. 276-309. See also Werner, Richard A. (2012). Towards a New Research Programme on ‘Banking and the Economy’ – Implications of the Quantity Theory of Credit for the Prevention and Resolution of Banking and Debt Crises, International Review of Financial Analysis, 25, 94-105,
  9. ↑ Yamagawa, Hiroshi. "BOJ planned bubble, decade of misery," The Japan Times, 27 July 2001; retrieved 2011-08-20
  10. ↑ "Book exposes BOJ 'rulers'," Asahi Shimbun. May 10, 2001; retrieved 2011-08-20
  11. 1 2 Richard Werner, Keizai Kyoshitsu: Keiki kaifuku, ryoteiki kinyu kanwa kara, Nikkei, 2 September 1995.
  12. ↑ Nikkei 2 Sept. 1995, op. cit; see also Lyonnet and Werner (2012), Lessons from QE and other ‘unconventional’ monetary policies – Evidence from the Bank of England, Centre for Banking, Finance and Sustainable Development Discussion Paper, University of Southampton
  13. ↑ Richard Werner, Keizai Kyoshitsu: Keiki kaifuku, ryoteiki kinyu kanwa kara, Nikkei, 2 September 1995. But also other publications, e.g. Japanese Economist, 14 July 1998 ; Financial Times, 9 February 2000
  14. ↑ Richard A. Werner, New Paradigm in Macroeconomics: Solving the Riddle of Japanese Macroeconomic Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
  15. ↑ "Home". local-first.org.uk.
  16. ↑ "£2.5m awarded to professor because Southampton University failed to turn up to tribunal". 13 June 2019.
  17. ↑ "Dr R Werner v University of Southampton: 1404855/2018". GOV.UK. 30 June 2021.
  18. ↑ "Mr RA Werner v The Chancellor Masters & Scholars of University of Cambridge: 3303850/2019". GOV.UK.
  19. ↑ "Comment: Range of Methodologies for Risk and Performance Alignment of Remuneration" (PDF). www.bis.org. 2010-12-31.
  20. ↑ "Southampton Business School | University of Southampton" (PDF).
  21. ↑ "Strengthening the resilience of the banking sector". 2009-12-17.
  22. ↑ "Comment: Strengthening the Resilience of the Banking Sector" (PDF). 2010-04-16.
  23. ↑ Press Release: "The World Economic Forum Designated 100 New Global Leaders for Tomorrow: Richard A Werner Selected for Class of 2003"; retrieved 2011-08-20
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