Fetter also asserted that just as the price of each consumer good is determined solely by subjective value, so the rate of interest is determined solely by time preference. He maintained that time valuation was prerequisite to the determination of the market rate of interest, and he emphasized the time valuation element in all consumption and production choices. Fetter taught at Cornell University, Indiana University, and Stanford University. He was the first chairman of Princeton University's Department of Economics and Social Institutions, an interdisciplinary department that incorporated history, politics, and economics.