- Person
- Joseph Stiglitz
- Lived
- b. 1943
- Field
- Economics
- From
- American
The story
Joseph Stiglitz served as senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank from 1997 to 2000. There he became a prominent critic of the narrow policy advice often given to developing countries, especially by the International Monetary Fund, and he argued that countries should be able to weigh a wider range of options. He left the Bank in January 2000 after pressure from the US Treasury over his public criticism.
Those seven years in Washington shaped what he did next. In July 2000 he founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University, where he joined the faculty in 2001 and became a University Professor, the university's highest academic rank, in 2003. He was also founding chair of Columbia's Committee on Global Thought. The initiative was launched with support from the Ford, Rockefeller, MacArthur and Mott foundations and the Canadian and Swedish governments.
Its aim, Stiglitz wrote, was to strengthen democratic decision-making in developing countries, so that a broader range of alternatives would be on the table and more stakeholders would be at the table. It enlisted dozens of economists and other social scientists around the world in task forces to set out policy alternatives, and it held policy dialogues bringing together academics, government officials, NGOs, labour leaders and journalists in countries including Serbia, Nigeria, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Through the initiative, Stiglitz and colleagues such as José Antonio Ocampo, a former UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, wrote books like Stability with Growth. They argued that the so-called Washington Consensus had set development goals that were too narrow, focused on price stability, and relied on too few policy tools, mainly monetary and fiscal policy. Stiglitz has also advised governments on issues ranging from monetary policy in Ecuador to social security reform in China.
Since 2005 Stiglitz has also chaired the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester. Together these institutions give policymakers in poorer countries research, dialogue and practical alternatives designed around their own development needs, rather than a single set of prescriptions handed down from outside.
Why it matters
Stiglitz’s institutes give policymakers in poorer countries research and alternatives designed around their own development needs.
About Joseph Stiglitz
Nobel economist from Gary, Indiana, who showed how imperfect information distorts markets, led the World Bank’s research and became a leading critic of inequality.
More about Joseph Stiglitz
- Joseph Stiglitz named the Henry George theoremJoseph Stiglitz showed that the ideal supply of local public goods can be funded entirely by taxing the land rents those goods create, calling it the Henry George theorem.
- Joseph Stiglitz won a Nobel for the economics of informationJoseph Stiglitz shared the 2001 Nobel economics prize for showing how markets work when one side knows more than the other, including how insurers screen customers.
- Joseph Stiglitz explained why unemployment persistsIn 1984 Carl Shapiro and Joseph Stiglitz published a model showing how employers’ difficulty monitoring workers can keep wages high and leave some people unemployed.
- Joseph Stiglitz marched for civil rights in 1963As student council president at Amherst, Joseph Stiglitz joined the March on Washington and organised an exchange with a small African-American college in the South.
- Joseph Stiglitz led a commission on measuring beyond GDPIn 2008 Joseph Stiglitz chaired the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, whose 2009 report argued that GDP alone does not measure well-being.
Sources
- Joseph Stiglitz Wikipedia
- Joseph Stiglitz Jewish Virtual Library
- Joseph E. Stiglitz: Biographical NobelPrize.org
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.