Meanings
- economicsThe observation that the rate of interest and the general level of prices are positively correlated.
1 more example
For some years past Mr. A. H. Gibson has published a series of articles, mostly in the Bankers' Magazine, emphasising the extraordinarily close correlation over a period of more than a hundred years between the rate of interest, as measured by the yield of Consols, and the level of prices, as measured by the Wholesale Index-Number. […] [T]he extraordinary thing is that the "Gibson Paradox"—as we may fairly call it—is one of the most completely established empirical facts within the whole field of quantitative economics, though theoretical economists have mostly ignored it.
[1930, John Maynard Keynes, “Historical Illustrations”, in A Treatise on Money […], volume II (The Applied Theory of Money), London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, book VI (The Rate of Investment and Its Fluctuations), page 198
Origin
Coined by the British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) in A Treatise on Money (1930; see the quotation), after the British economist Arthur Herbert Gibson, who noted the correlation in a series of articles for Bankers’ Magazine, particularly in its January 1923 and November 1926 issues (though it had previously been noted by the English economist Thomas Tooke (1774–1858)).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish Gibsonin paradoksi
- Gibsonin paradoksiobservation that the rate of interest and the general level of prices are positively correlated
German Gibson-Paradox, Gibson-Paradoxon
- Gibson-Paradoxobservation that the rate of interest and the general level of prices are positively correlated
- Gibson-Paradoxonobservation that the rate of interest and the general level of prices are positively correlated
Polish paradoks Giffena
- paradoks Giffenaobservation that the rate of interest and the general level of prices are positively correlated
Cite this entry
Gibson's paradox. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gibson's%20paradox
“Gibson's paradox.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gibson's%20paradox. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Gibson's paradox,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gibson's%20paradox.
Source: Gibson's paradox on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.