John B. Taylor

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John B. Taylor

John B. Taylor is an American economist and professor at Stanford University, best known for developing the Taylor Rule—a widely cited guideline for how central banks should set interest rates in response to inflation and economic activity.

Overview

  • Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University; Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
  • Director of the Stanford Introductory Economics Center.
  • Fields of expertise: macroeconomics, monetary policy, and international economics.

The Taylor Rule

  • Introduced in his 1993 paper “Discretion vs. Policy Rules in Practice.”
  • Provides a simple policy formula linking the nominal interest rate to inflation and the output gap.
  • In Taylor’s original formulation, monetary policy places greater weight on deviations of inflation from target (a 1.5 coefficient on inflation), implying a systematic response by central banks to stabilize prices and output.

Career and Public Service

  • Served on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1976–1977; 1989–1991).
  • Member of the Congressional Budget Office’s panel of economic advisers (1995–2001).
  • Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs during the George W. Bush administration.
  • Member of the California Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors (1996–1998; 2005–2010).

Academic Work and Publications

  • Author of numerous books, papers, and op-eds on macroeconomic policy and monetary economics.
  • Frequent commentator in financial media and academic forums.

Honors and Recognition

  • Recipient of multiple awards, including the 2016 Adam Smith Award (Association of Private Enterprise Education) and the 2015 Truman Medal for Economic Policy.

Education and Teaching

  • B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, Princeton University (1968).
  • Ph.D. in Economics, Stanford University (1973).
  • Has taught at Columbia University and Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School in addition to Stanford.

Significance

Taylor’s work, especially the Taylor Rule, has had lasting influence on monetary policy debates by offering a transparent, rule-based benchmark for setting interest rates and evaluating central-bank behavior.