Bhagwati, Jagdish N. 1934–

PERSONAL: Born July 26, 1934, in Bombay, India; son of Natwarlal H. (a judge of the Supreme Court of India) and Saraswati (Amin) Bhagwati; married Padma Desai; children: Anuradha Kristina (daughter). Education: Sydenham College, Bombay University, B.Com., 1954; St. John's College, Cambridge, M.A., 1956; graduate study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1956–57, Ph.D., 1967; graduate study at Nuffield College, Oxford, 1957–59. Hobbies and other interests: Indian classical music.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Economics, Columbia University, 828 International Affairs Bldg., MC 3308, 420 W. 118th St., New York, NY 10027. E-mail—jb38@columbia.edu.

CAREER: Oxford University, Oxford, England, research fellow at Nuffield College, 1959–61; Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, India, professor of economics, 1961–63; Delhi University, School of Economics, Delhi, India, professor of international trade, 1963–67; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, professor of economics, 1967–78, Ford International Professor of Economics, 1978–80; Columbia University, New York City, Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics, professor of political science, 1980–2001, professor of economics and law, 2001–. Ford research professor, University of California, Berkeley, 1973–74; Frank Graham lecturer, Princeton University, 1967; senior fellow in international economics, Council on Foreign Relations. Consultant to Turkish State Planning Organization, 1964, and to Indian Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance, at various periods, beginning 1964; member of expert groups on international trade, Economics Commission for Asia and the Far East, 1964, and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 1966. Also economic policy advisor to the Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 1991–93. Serves as a director of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MEMBER: Econometric Society (fellow), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Economic Association (distinguished fellow), American Philosophical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Bernhard Harms Prize (Germany); Seidman Award in Political Economy; Mahalandis Memorial Medal (India); recipient of numerous honorary degrees.

WRITINGS:

(Contributor) Roy Harrod, editor, International Trade Theory in a Developing World, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1963.

(Contributor) Baldwin and others, editor, Trade, Growth, and the Balance of Payments, Rand McNally (Chicago, IL), 1965.

(Contributor) Surveys in Economic Theory, Volume III: Growth and Development, Macmillan (New York, NY), for American Economic Association and Royal Economic Society, 1965.

The Economics of Underdeveloped Countries, McGraw (New York, NY), 1966.

The Theory and Practice of Commercial Policy: Departures from Unified Exchange Rates, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1968.

(Editor) International Trade: Selected Readings, Penguin (Harmondsworth, England), 1969, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1981, 2nd edition, 1987.

Trade, Tariffs, and Growth: Essays in International Economics, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London, England), 1969, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1971.

(With wife, Padma Desai) India: Planning for Industrialization, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1970.

Amount and Sharing of Aid, Overseas Development Council (Washington, DC), 1970.

(Editor, with Richard S. Eckaus) Foreign Aid: Selected Readings, Penguin (New York, NY), 1970.

(Editor, with others) Trade, Balance of Payments and Growth: Papers in International Economics in Honor of Charles P. Kindleberger, American Elsevier (New York, NY), 1971.

(Author of introduction; editor, with Harry G. Johnson and T.N. Srinivasan) Trade and Development: Essays in Economics, Allen and Unwin (London, England), 1971.

(Editor) Economics and World Order from the 1970s to the 1990s, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1972.

(Editor, with Richard S. Eckaus) Development and Planning: Essays in Honour of Paul Rosenstein Rodan, Allen and Unwin (London, England), 1972, M.I.T. Press, 1973.

India in the International Economy: A Policy Framework for a Progressive Society, Institute of Public Enterprise (Hyderabad, India), 1973.

(Editor) Illegal Transactions in International Trade: Theory and Measurement, American Elsevier (New York, NY), 1974.

(With others) Electoral Politics in the Indian States: Three Disadvantaged Sectors, Manohar Book Service (Delhi, India), 1975.

(With T.N. Srinivasan) India, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1975.

(Editor, with D.T. Lakdawala and R. Bharadwaj) Readings in the Theory of International Trade and Commercial Policy, Lalvani (Bombay, India), 1975.

(Editor, with Martin Partington) Taxing the Brain Drain, American Elsevier (New York, NY), 1976.

(Editor) The New International Economic Order: The North-South Debate, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1977.

Anatomy and Consequences of Exchange Control Regimes, Ballinger (Cambridge, MA), 1978.

(Editor) Import Competition and Response, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1982.

Essays in International Economic Theory, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983.

(With T.N. Srinivasan) Lectures on International Trade, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983, 2nd edition, with Arvind Panagariya, 1998.

(Editor, with John Gerard Ruggie) Power, Passions, and Purpose: Prospects for North-South Negotiations, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1984.

Essays in Development Economics, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1985.

Dependence and Interdependence: Developing Countries in the World Economy, John Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1987.

Protectionism, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1988.

(Editor, with John Douglas Wilson) Income Taxation and International Mobility, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1989.

(Contributor) Perspektiven der weltwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung und ihre Konsequenzen fuer die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Weltarchiv (Hamburg, Germany), 1990.

Political Economy and International Economics, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1991.

The World Trading System at Risk, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1991.

India in Transition: Freeing the Economy, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

(Editor, with Marvin H. Kosters) Trade and Wages: Leveling Wages Down?, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 1994.

(With Anne O. Krueger) The Dangerous Drift to Preferential Trade Agreements, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 1995.

(Editor, with Arvind Panagariya) The Economics of Preferential Trade Agreements, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 1996.

(Editor, with Robert E. Hudec) Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisites for Free Trade?, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

The Feuds over Free Trade, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore), 1997.

Writings on International Economics, edited by V.N. Balasubramanyam, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

(Editor, with Mathias Hirsch) The Uruguay Round and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Arthur Dunkel, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1998.

A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1998.

(Editor, with Pravin Krishna and Panagariya) Trading Blocs: Alternative Approaches to Analyzing Preferential Trade Agreements, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999.

The Wind of the Hundred Days: How Washington Mismanaged Globalization, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Free Trade Today, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2002.

Globalization and Appropriate Governance, UNU/Wider, 2002.

(Author of foreword) James H. Mathis, Regional Trade Agreements in the GATT-WTO: Article XXIV and the Internal Trade Requirement, T.M.C. Asser Press (The Hague, Netherlands), 2002.

In Defense of Globalization, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Editor and founder, Journal of International Economics. Founder, Economics and Politics, 1989. Member of editorial board, World Development and Journal of Development Economics. Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New Republic, and Times Literary Supplement. Also author of La Vinculacion de la Ayuda, Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos (Mexico, 1968).

SIDELIGHTS: Jagdish N. Bhagwati "is an economist of high professional achievement, especially in the theory of international trade and trade policy," wrote Richard N. Cooper in Foreign Affairs. An economics professor, Bhagwati is a proponent of international free trade who has assisted in deliberations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and other trading policies. Bhagwati has delivered lectures and has written a number of books on issues of trade, immigration, taxation, and political economy.

Bhagwati's Protectionism puts forward his arguments for free trade and his reservations about protectionism, identifying trends in American politics that reversed liberal trade policies in effect from the 1950s through the early 1970s. Writing for Business Economics, Ralph M. Monaco observed: "Providing economically sound and consistent analyses of the multifaceted trade policy problem is a formidable task. Bhagwati succeeds, primarily because he concentrates on trends and ideas, using numbers and formal quantitative analysis as illustrations in passing." Monaco added: "The book is also well-written, and though requiring careful attention, is quite enjoyable. This thin volume is a stark refutation to the charge that economists cannot communicate well." In the New Leader, Robert Lekachman noted: "An economist who writes a short book in graceful English merits acclaim for that achievement alone. When he adds a sense of history and touches of humor, applause can only grow louder. Jagdish Bhagwati has actually done considerably more. He has adroitly expounded the arguments for free trade and protection in a form readily comprehensible to noneconomists, and at the same time referred fellow practitioners to the latest research findings on the process and effects of international trade." New Republic essayist Robert B. Reich termed Protectionism "a charming little book," recommending that Bhagwati "deserves commendations for the simple and elegant arguments he brings to bear on a subject too often submerged beneath economic jargon or political slogan."

Among Bhagwati's other well-received books, Lectures on International Trade has been significant to the study of economics and political policy. First published in 1983, the book was revised and expanded for its second edition in 1998. In Comparative Economic Studies, Thomas J. Prusa commented that the work is "an essential part of a graduate level course in international trade…. The new edition of this classic text represents a substantial effort to update the book and return it to its place on the typical graduate reading list." Prusa added that the new edition "is far more satisfying than the original and is still the best textbook supplement for a graduate course in international trade."

In A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy, Bhagwati collects fifty-five previously published essays, lectures, letters to the editor, and book reviews that expound his opinions on international trade policy, free trade, globalization, democracy, immigration, and labor standards. "Bhagwati states in his introductory chapter that he believes economists should be policy advocates in their areas of expertise," stated Sidney Weintraub in the International Migration Review, "and this is what this selection represents." Weintraub continued, noting: "It is a pleasure to read Bhagwati's writings. There is a clear, incisive logic in his thinking, and the arguments are set forth clearly, indeed elegantly." In a review for Finance and Development, Lynn Aylward observed: "Bhagwati ably addresses what many are calling the predominant issue of this epoch: whether globalization is a beneficial force propelling us along the best path to widespread global prosperity or an evil animus that favors the strong over the weak."

Similar to A Stream of Windows, Bhagwati's The Wind of the Hundred Days: How Washington Mismanaged Globalization is a collection of essays focusing primarily on free trade and globalization. Bhagwati makes clear in The Wind of the Hundred Days that while he believes in free trade, he does not believe that politicians should create "linkages" between free trade and other social issues, such as human rights or the environment. Mary Carroll, a contributor to Booklist, called The Wind of the Hundred Days "a constructive, if controversial, contribution to an important public policy debate." Finance and Development critic Deena Khatkhate wrote: "Presented with clarity, humor, and a light touch, the essays educate readers about complex economic issues and the significance of economic policies that affect their well-being."

In 2002 Bhagwati released Free Trade Today, which, according to Ravi A. Yatawara, writing in Comparative Economic Studies, "provides an invaluable public service, documenting a comprehensive and compelling case on the benefits of free trade." In addition, Bhagwati's 2004 effort, In Defense of Globalization, "argues, with numerous illustrations, that the best chance that the developing world has for raising its material standard of living is an open economy," wrote Brian Easton in the New Zealand International Review. Once again, Bhagwati uses his expertise as a leading economist to explain the benefits of globalization. "In a series of breezily written but trenchantly argued chapters, he disposes of the claims that globalization … is harmful for women, children … poverty, democracy, wages, the environment, and culture," wrote Geoffrey McNicoll in Population and Development. First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life contributor Michael Novak remarked that In Defense of Globalization is "solid, well organized, clearly written, and wickedly witty." Likewise, Easton concluded that the book is "a lively text that will engage the open-minded."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Balasubramanyam, V.N., and D. Greenway, editors, Trade and Development: Essays in Honour of Jagdish Bhagwati, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Feenstra, Robert C., Gene M. Grossman, and Douglas A. Irwin, editors, The Political Economy of Trade Policy: Papers in Honor of Jagdish Bhagwati, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Koekkoek, Ad and L.B.M. Mennes, editors, International Trade and Global Development: Essays in Honor of Jagdish Bhagwati, Routledge (New York, NY), 1991.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2001, Mary Carroll, review of The Wind of the Hundred Days: How Washington Mismanaged Globalization, p. 882.

Business Economics, April, 1989, Ralph M. Monaco, review of Protectionism, p. 63.

Business Week, March 22, 2004, "The Convictions of a Convert," p. 28.

CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, October, 2001, J. Gerber, review of The Wind of the Hundred Days, p. 356; July-August, 2004, M. Veseth, review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 2091.

Comparative Economic Studies, winter, 1998, Thomas J. Prusa, review of Lectures on International Trade, p. 113; winter, 1999, Satya Das, review of Trading Blocs: Alternative Approaches to Analyzing Preferential Trade Arrangements, p. 112; winter, 2002, Ravi A. Yatawara, review of Free Trade Today, p. 141.

Economic Journal, July, 1998, W. Max Corden, "Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisites for Free Trade? Volume 1," p. 1217; July, 1998, W. Max Corden, "Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisites for Free Trade? Volume 2," p. 1217.

Economist, December 17, 1988, review of Protectionism, p. 98; February 11, 1989, p. 63; February 9, 2002, "Champions of Trade; Economics Focus."

Ethics and International Affairs, October, 2002, Stephen L.S. Smith, review of Free Trade Today, p. 127.

Finance and Development, June, 2000, Lynn Aylward, review of A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy, p. 54; September, 2001, Deena Khatkhate, review of The Wind of the Hundred Days, p. 57; December, 2002, Antonio Spilimbergo, "Preaching to the Converted," review of Free Trade Today, p. 53; March, 2004, Douglas A. Irwin, "Globalization for One-Stop Shoppers," review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 52.

First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, August-September, 2004, Michael Novak, review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 80.

Foreign Affairs, November-December, 1993, Myron Weiner, review of India in Transition: Freeing the Economy, p. 182; September-October, 1998, Richard N. Cooper, review of A Stream of Windows, p. 147; November, 1998, p. 142; September, 2002, review of Free Trade Today, p. 201.

International Affairs, October, 1999, Andrea Goldstein, review of Trading Blocs, p. 843; July, 2002, Federico Bonaglia, review of Free Trade Today, p. 630.

International Economy, July, 2001, Charles P. Kindleberger, review of The Wind of the Hundred Days, p. 54.

International Journal, spring, 2005, Melani Cammett, review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 592.

International Migration Review, winter, 1999, Sidney Weintraub, review of A Stream of Windows, p. 1107.

Library Journal, March 15, 2004, Lucy Heckman, review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 86.

National Review, April 19, 2004, Daniel T. Griswold, "The Road to Wealth," review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 47.

New Leader, September 19, 1988, Robert Lekachman, review of Protectionism, p. 20; May 6, 1991, Paul Streeten, review of The World Trading System at Risk, p. 17.

New Republic, October 31, 1988, Robert B. Reich, review of Protectionism, p. 36.

New York Times Book Review, March 3, 1985, Kyle Crichton, review of Power, Passions, and Purpose: Prospects for North-South Negotiations, p. 11; August 2, 1998, Jay R. Mandle, review of A Stream of Windows, p. 22; April 18, 2004, Daniel W. Drezner, "Globalization without Riots," review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 18.

New Zealand International Review, January-February, 2005, Brian Easton, review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 31.

Population and Development Review, September, 2004, Geoffrey McNicoll, review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 556.

Publishers Weekly, January 26, 2004, review of In Defense of Globalization, p. 244.

Reason, July, 2003, review of Free Trade Today, p. 59; August-September, 2004, Prakash Loungani, "Globalization without Tears: An Economist Debates the NGOs," p. 68.

Times Higher Education Supplement, October 23, 1998, Nigel Grimwade, review of A Stream of Windows, p. 26.

Times Literary Supplement, November 12, 1999, review of A Stream of Windows, p. 37; August 30, 2002, Robin Marris, review of Free Trade Today, p. 24; March 18, 2005, Henri Astier, "The World from France," review of In Defense of Globalization, pp. 6-7.

Wall Street Journal Western Edition, July 29, 1998, Adrian Karatnycky, review of A Stream of Windows, p. A13.

World Economy, May, 1999, V.N. Balasubramanyam, review of A Stream of Windows, p. 447; March, 2000, Dilip Das, review of Trading Blocs, p. 423.

ONLINE

Columbia University Web site, http://www.columbia.edu/ (October 27, 2005), author profile.