Stiglitz, Joseph E. 1943- (Joseph Eugene Stiglitz)

PERSONAL:

Born February 9, 1943, in Gary, IN; son of Nathaniel David (an insurance salesman) and Charlotte (a schoolteacher) Stiglitz; married Jane Hannaway, December 23, 1974 (divorced); married Anya Schiffrin, October 29, 2004; children: (first marriage) Siobhan, Michael, Edward, Julia. Education: Amherst College, B.A., 1964; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D., 1966.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Columbia University, Uris Hall, Ste. 814, 3022 Broadway, New York, NY 10027. E-mail—jes322@columbia.edu.

CAREER:

Cowles Foundation, Yale University, New Haven, CT, professor of economics, 1970-74; St. Catherine's College, Oxford, England, visiting fellow, 1973-74; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, Joan Kenney Professor, 1974-76; Oxford University, Oxford, Drummond Professor, 1976-78; Institute for Advanced Studies of Mathematics, Princeton, NJ, Oskar Morgenstern distinguished fellow, 1978-79; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, professor of economics, 1979-88; World Bank, Washington, DC, chief economist and senior vice president, 1997-2000; Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, senior fellow, 2000-01; Columbia University, New York, NY, professor of economics and international and public affairs, 2001—. President's Council of Economic Advisors, member, 1993-97, chairman, 1995-97; member of Institute for Policy Research (senior fellow, 1991-93) and British Academy; advisor to organizations and governments, including those of Serbia and Bulgaria.

MEMBER:

American Economics Association (executive committee, 1982-84; vice president, 1985), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Science, Econometric Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Guggenheim fellow, 1969-70; honorary degrees from Yale University, 1970, Amherst College, 1974, and University of Leuven, 1994; John Bates Clark Award, American Economics Association, 1979; international prize, Accademia Lincei, 1988; Union des Assurances de Paris prize, 1989; Nobel Prize (economics; shared), 2001, for "analyses of markets with asymmetric information."

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Hirofumi Uzawa) Readings in the Modern Theory of Economic Growth, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1969.

(With Anthony B. Atkinson) Lectures on Public Economics, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1980.

(With David M.G. Newbery) The Theory of Commodity Price Stabilization: A Study in the Economics of Risk, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1981.

(With Richard Arnott) Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: The Welfare Economics of Moral Hazard, Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1982.

(With Richard Arnott) Labor Turnover, Wage Structures, and Moral Hazard: The Inefficiency of Competitive Markets, Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1982.

(With Richard Arnott) Moral Hazard and Optimal Commodity Taxation, Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1983.

(Editor, with G. Frank Mathewson) New Developments in the Analysis of Market Structure: Proceedings of a Conference Held by the International Economic Association in Ottawa Canada, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1986.

Economics of the Public Sector, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1986, 3rd edition, 2000.

(With Avishay Braverman) Credit Rationing, Tenancy, Productivity, and the Dynamics of Inequality, World Bank (Washington, DC), 1989.

(Editor, with Arnold Heertje) The Economic Role of the State, B. Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 1989.

(With others) Establizaçã e crescimento econômico na América Latina, Libros Técnicos e Científicos Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1991.

(With Raaj K. Sah) Peasants versus City-dwellers: Taxation and the Burden of Economic Development, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Principles of Microeconomics, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1993, 4th edition, 2006.

Principles of Macroeconomics, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1993, 4th edition, 2006.

Financial Systems for Eastern Europe's Emerging Democracies, ICS Press (San Francisco, CA), 1993.

(Editor, with Karla Hoff and Avishay Braverman) The Economics of Rural Organization: Theory, Practice, and Policy, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Economics, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1993, 4th revised edition, with Carl E. Walsh, 2006.

Whither Socialism? MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

(With Robin W. Boadway) Economics and the Canadian Economy, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Robin W. Boadway) Principles of Microeconomics and the Canadian Economy, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Nicholas H. Stern) A Framework for a Development Strategy in a Market Economy: Objectives, Scope, Institutions, and Instruments, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (London, England), 1997.

(With Robin W. Broadway) Principles of Macroeconomics and the Canadian Economy, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1997.

H.C. Recktenwald-Preis für Nationalökonomie, Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg (Nürnberg, Germany), 1998.

More Instruments and Broader Goals: Moving toward the Post-Washington Consensus, UNU/WIDER (Helsinki, Finland), 1998.

(With Kaushik Basu and Garance Genicot) Household Labor Supply, Unemployment, and Minimum-wage Legislation, World Bank (Washington, DC), 1999.

State versus Market: Have Asian Currency Crises Affected the Reform Debate? Bangladesh Economic Association (Dhaka, Bangladesh), 1999.

(Editor, with Boris Pleskovic) Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, World Bank (Washington, DC), 2000.

(Editor, with Pierre-Alain Muet) Governance, Equity, and Global Markets: The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

In un mondo imperfetto: Stato, mercato e democrazia nell'era della globalizzazione, Donzelli (Rome, Italy), 2001.

(Editor, with Shahid Yusuf) Rethinking the East Asia Miracle, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank: The Rebel Within (selected speeches), commentary by Ha-Joon Chang, Anthem Press (London, England), 2001.

(Editor, with Gerald M. Meier) Frontiers of Development Economics: The Future in Perspective, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(Editor, with Gerard Caprio and Patrick Honohan) Financial Liberalization: How Far, How Fast? Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Globalization and Its Discontents, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2003.

Sustainable Development and Neo-Liberalism, Bangladesh Economic Association (Dhaka, Bangladesh), 2003.

(With Bruce Greenwald) Towards a New Paradigm in Monetary Economics, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Karla Hoff) The Transition from Communism: A Diagrammatic Exposition of Obstacles to the Demand for the Rule of Law, World Bank (Washington, DC), 2004.

El rumbo de las reformas: Hacia una nueva agenda para America Latina, Corporacion Editora Nacional (Quito, Ecuador), 2004.

(With Karla Hoff) The Creation of the Rule of Law and the Legitimacy of Property Rights: The Political and Economic Consequences of a Corrupt Privatization, National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

(With Andrew Charlton) Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005, revised edition, 2007.

(With others) Stability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization, and Development, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2006.

Making Globalization Work, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor, with others) The Economists' Voice: Top Economists Take on Today's Problems, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(Editor, with others) Escaping the Resource Curse, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(With others) Net Worth, Exchange Rates, and Monetary Policy: The Effects of a Devaluation in a Financially Fragile Environment, National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

American editor of Review of Economic Studies, 1968-76; associate editor of American Economic Review, 1968-76; editor of Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1986-93; member of editorial board, World Bank Economic Review; contributor to journals and periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joseph E. Stiglitz was a corecipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for economics, along with fellow Americans George Akerlof and Michael Spence, for work begun decades earlier. The three economists concluded that because players have different levels of access to the same information, free markets don't always work. Stiglitz was an advisor to President Bill Clinton and was the chief economist of the World Bank, a position he left after much controversy over his criticism of the World Bank's sister organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Both were founded following World War II, based on the ideals of economist John Maynard Keynes, who saw them as a way to provide capital to help governments increase output when markets failed. Although they continued with the original intent, according to Stiglitz, they also evolved to include the interests of the financial community.

Nation contributor Eyal Press noted that in numerous public venues, "Stiglitz blasted the IMF for being every bit as secretive, undemocratic, and indifferent to the poor as its critics claimed." This candor greatly upset IMF and treasury officials, and eventually led World Bank president James Wolfensohn "to inform him that he would have to mute his criticism or resign. Stiglitz chose to leave," Press wrote.

Stiglitz grew up in a middle-class family in Gary, Indiana, a steel town that suffered plant closings and cyclical layoffs, subjects Stiglitz went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By the time he was twenty-six, he was a full professor at Yale University. His lifelong interest in development policy was sparked when he visited Kenya at the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation. He has taught at a number of prestigious universities and written or edited a long list of books and papers on economic policy.

When Stiglitz left the IMF, he accepted a position with Columbia University and established the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, through which he hoped to wrest exclusivity of development policy from the IMF. In perhaps his most significant book to date, Globalization and Its Discontents, he revisits his years with the World Bank and offers his interpretations and criticisms of the policies formed there. A liberal with populist leanings, Stiglitz could never be described as radical, and he came to the World Bank full of optimism. Almost immediately he took issue with IMF policy regarding Ethiopia, when the IMF suspended loans because that country refused to accept financial deregulation. Stiglitz was amazed, because the Ethiopian government was dramatically improving the lives of its people, but the IMF insisted that their policies be adopted with no regard for the experiences and opinions of the country's leaders.

The rift between Stiglitz and the IMF deepened with the 1997 Asian crisis. Stiglitz considered the IMF and U.S. Treasury Department's advice to Asians to remove restriction on capital movement as pandering to Wall Street. South Korea, like Singapore, had become a model of how hard work, saving, and government participation could turn around a poor country. South Korea had raised its per-capita gross domestic product from ninety dollars to 4,400 dollars from 1950 to 1990. The flow of money was restricted to prevent damaging changes in exchange rates, and American financial firms were not allowed in. When this changed in the 1990s, money flowed in and out, largely on speculation. With the collapse of the Thai economy, money rapidly left the countries that had embraced IMF policy, and their markets collapsed. The situation worsened when the IMF ordered them to raise interest rates and balance budgets to restore confidence, unnecessary in most cases, because the Asian countries, unlike those in Latin America, did not run large budget deficits or print too much money. The changing monetary policy unnerved investors even further, and the crisis spread to Malaysia and Indonesia.

The classic economic theory that the expansion of trade and commerce creates a positive effect seemed to work during the 1970s and 1980s, when countries like Singapore and South Korea reduced poverty through increased exports. Stiglitz writes that globalization no longer works for the world's poor, the environment, or the stability of the global economy. He alleges that the advanced industrial countries are too closely aligned with the World Bank and IMF.

Michael J. Mandel reviewed Globalization and Its Discontents in Business Week, observing that it "has the potential to be the liberal equivalent of Milton Friedman's 1962 classic Capitalism and Freedom." Mandel felt, however, that it does not quite rise to that level because Stiglitz "ignores some key arguments in favor of the market."

Stiglitz makes no apologies for the protests that have disrupted international summits and points out that before these events became commonplace, there was no way to express dissatisfaction. He feels that even with the attendant problems and excesses that occurred during some demonstrations, it is this effort by ordinary citizens around the world that has "put the need for reform on the agenda of the developed world."

In 2003, Stiglitz published The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade, which looks back on the financial boom of the previous decade. He covers the surprising result of how reduction of the national deficit led to an economic upswing, and then what led to its collapse years later. Stiglitz finds that deregulation allowed large corporations to distort financial data, while financial analysts withheld information from investors. Criticized in the book is George W. Bush for not addressing the start of the recession, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan for his lack of action, and the administration of President Bill Clinton, which put pressure on other countries regarding economic policies. Stiglitz follows up these assessments with a call for social justice and economic reform. While many reviewers who disagree with Stiglitz's political viewpoints found fault in The Roaring Nineties, others enjoyed the author's frank and enthusiastic recap of an eventful decade. With this book, "the discussion becomes exciting," wrote Robert Skidelsky in a review for the New Statesman. Others found truth in and lessons to be learned from Stiglitz's work. The Roaring Nineties is a "sobering tale, told with a ring of honesty," noted one Economist contributor.

Stiglitz concentrates on fair trade and how to implement it properly in 2005's Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development. In this book, he demonstrates how developing countries need to move toward free trade at their own pace, and that developed countries need to help teach developing countries successful trade practices while moving toward establishing a healthy trade relationship between them. He points to how it can be difficult for developing nations to succeed under the sudden opening of trade due to other constraints, such as lack of an efficient transportation system, minimal job training, and inadequate housing. Therefore, the development of this infrastructure must be paced with fair trade, so that a healthy and thriving trade situation is built on a strong foundation. Using Mexico as an example, Stiglitz argues that without building up these things first, trade can actually harm a country more than it helps it. Fair Trade for All also urges developed nations to reform their trade policies so that developing countries can have a fair chance at excelling in the world marketplace. The book "delivers convincing theoretical analyses," observed a Harvard Law Review contributor. Others agreed that Fair Trade for All contains thought-provoking arguments. "Stiglitz is worth listening to," stated Robert B. Reich in a review for the New York Times Book Review.

The following year, Stiglitz published Making Globalization Work, in which he argues that true globalization has not yet been established. It is an update of sorts of his previous book on the subject, Globalization and Its Discontents. In this book, Stiglitz points to six conditions that support his assessment, including pervasive poverty, reliance on foreign assistance, the need to protect the environment, and flawed global governance. In turn, he presents specific, concrete ways to encourage successful globalization politically and economically. He also supports his assertions with numerous examples and statistics in easy-to-understand language. Again, reviews of Making Globalization Work were mixed, often according to political viewpoint, but the book garnered many positive accolades overall. Many found merit in the author's suggestions for making globalization work; Stiglitz "presents a number of practical solutions," wrote one Reference & Research Book News contributor. Others lauded Stiglitz for presenting the information in an approachable and practical manner. He gives a "lucid synthesis of the counter-arguments," noted Matt Kennard in a review for the New Statesman.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Arnott, Richard, editor, Economics for an Imperfect World: Essays in Honor of Joseph E. Stiglitz, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Woolley, Frances, The Public Sector in Canada: A Canadian Supplement to Joseph Stiglitz's Economics of the Public Sector, 2nd edition, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1994.

PERIODICALS

African Business, February, 2004, "Irrational Exuberance," p. 62; December, 2006, "Rewrite Global Economic Rules," p. 62.

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, August, 1995, William A. Ward, review of The Economics of Rural Organization: Theory, Practice, and Policy, p. 814.

ASEAN Economic Bulletin, August, 2002, Denis Hew, review of Rethinking the East Asia Miracle, p. 217.

AsiaPulse News, March 28, 2005, "Nobel Laureates Warn against Yuan Revaluation."

Atlantic Monthly, October, 2002, Joseph E. Stiglitz, "The Roaring Nineties," p. 75.

Banker, January, 2000, "Stiglitz Departs World Bank in Upbeat Mood," p. 36; June, 2002, Suzanne Miller, review of Globalization and Its Discontents, p. 88.

Booklist, November 1, 2003, Mary Whaley, review of The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade, p. 466; November 1, 2006, Brendan Driscoll, review of Making Globalization Work, p. 10.

Bookseller, May 12, 2006, Benedicte Page, "Changing the Global Agenda," p. 31.

Business Week, April 24, 2000, "Acid Words for the IMF," p. 48; June 17, 2002, Michael J. Mandel, review of Globalization and Its Discontents, p. 17; November 10, 2003, Peter Coy, "The Boom: What Went Wrong," p. 24; July 3, 2006, Peter Coy, "Free Trade Can Be Too Free," p. 102.

Challenge, March, 2002, Ha-Joon Chang, "The Stiglitz Contribution," p. 77.

Christian Century, August 7, 2007, Max Stackhouse, "For Fairer Trade," p. 28.

Contemporary Review, October, 2001, Chris White, "Joseph Stiglitz: An Economist at the World Bank," p. 219.

Ecologist, September, 2000, "The Insider: Joseph Stiglitz, Ex-World Bank Chief Economist, Speaks Out against the IMF," p. 30.

Economic Development and Cultural Change, April, 1995, Jean-Marie Baland, review of Peasants versus City-dwellers: Taxation and the Burden of Economic Development, p. 681.

Economic Journal, July, 1994, Pradeep Mitra, review of Peasants versus City-dwellers, p. 964; July, 1996, Keith Cowling, review of Whither Socialism?, p. 1098.

Economic Record, December, 1997, James Alvey, review of Whither Socialism?, p. 387.

Economist, February 17, 1996, review of Whither Socialism?, p. 10; December 18, 1999, "The Bumpy Ride of Joe Stiglitz," p. 125; June 8, 2002, review of Globalization and Its Discontents; September 20, 2003, "Mr. Stiglitz Goes to Washington," p. 79; September 9, 2006, "Joe Has Another Go," p. 79.

Finance & Development, March, 2006, Hans Peter Lankes, "Indulging in Political Rhetoric," p. 53.

Finance Wire, October 23, 2003, "Author, ‘The Roaring Nineties.’"

Financial Times, November 29, 1999, Alan Beattie, "Stiglitz Hits at World Bank Policy," p. 9; October 11, 2001, "Economist Is No Diplomat," p. 21; July 13, 2002, Julia Llewellyn, "A Beautiful Mind at the Barricades," p. 3; February 2, 2006, James Wilson, "Nobel Prizewinner Takes up Part-time Post," p. 2; September 22, 2007, Alex Martinos, review of Making Globalization Work, p. 41.

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 2002, Barry Eichengreen, review of Globalization and Its Discontents, p. 157.

FT Expat, September 1, 2002, "Stiglitz on the IMF."

Harvard Law Review, May, 2006, review of Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development, p. 2252.

Human Nature Review, July 9, 2002, James M. Rossi, review of Globalization and Its Discontents, p. 293.

Inc., October 1, 2003, Mike Hofman, "Those Weren't the Days?"

Independent Review, fall, 1998, Robert Higgs, "What Professor Stiglitz Learned in Washington," p. 301.

Institutional Investor, October, 2003, Tom Buerkle, "Look Back in Anger," p. 140.

Inter Press Service, November 29, 1999, "‘Gentleman Joe’ Leaving World Bank," p. 1008329.

Journal of Development Economics, August, 1995, Lee J. Alston, review of The Economics of Rural Organization, p. 502.

Journal of East Asian Studies, May, 2002, Marcus Noland, review of Rethinking the East Asia Miracle, p. 683.

Journal of Economic Literature, December, 1994, Debraj Ray, review of The Economics of Rural Organization, p. 1931.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2002, review of Globalization and Its Discontents, p. 478; August 15, 2003, review of The Roaring Nineties, p. 1064.

Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau, September 27, 2006, "Nobel Prize-winning Economist Offers Fix to Make Globalization Work."

Library Journal, September 15, 2003, Carol J. Elsen, review of The Roaring Nineties, p. 67; October 1, 2006, Cynthia Cameros, review of Making Globalization Work, p. 87.

Management Today, October 9, 2006, "The MT Interview: Joseph Stiglitz," p. 28.

Managing Intellectual Property, October, 2004, Sam Mamudi, "How to Fix the IP Imbalance," p. 28.

Nation, June 10, 2002, Eyal Press, "Rebel with a Cause," p. 11.

New Republic, April 17, 2000, Joseph E. Stiglitz, "The Insider," p. 56.

New Statesman, October 27, 2003, Robert Skidelsky, review of The Roaring Nineties, p. 51; September 25, 2006, Matt Kennard, "Market Forces," p. 81.

New Yorker, July 15, 2002, John Cassidy, review of Globalization and Its Discontents.

New York Times, October 13, 2001, Sylvia Nasar, "The Sometimes Dismal Nobel Prize," p. 3; October 14, 2001, Paul Krugman, "Harvest of Lemons: An Inspiring Nobel," p. 13.

New York Times Book Review, June 23, 2002, Joseph Kahn, review of Globalization and Its Discontents, p. 12; December 21, 2003, Allen D. Boyer, review of The Roaring Nineties, p. 20; April 2, 2006, Robert B. Reich, review of Fair Trade for All, p. 21; December 24, 2006, Jeffry A. Frieden, review of Making Globalization Work, p. 19.

New York Times Magazine, June 9, 2002, Abby Ellin, "Think Global: Questions for Joseph E. Stiglitz," p. 25.

New Zealand Management, February, 2005, Reg Birchfield, review of The Roaring Nineties, p. 24.

Progressive, June, 2000, Lucy Komisar, "Joseph Stiglitz," p. 34.

Publishers Weekly, September 8, 2003, review of The Roaring Nineties, p. 70.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2006, review of Economics, Principles of Microeconomics, and Principles of Macroeconomics; November, 2006, review of Making Globalization Work.

Seattle Times, October 22, 2006, Alwyn Scott and Kristi Heim, "Nobel Winner Sees Flaws, Potential of Global Trade."

Southern Economic Journal, January, 1995, Subarna K. Samanta, review of The Economics of Rural Organization, p. 896.

Spectator, October 4, 2003, Tim Congdon, "Not Such a Low and Dishonest Decade," p. 52.

Urban Studies, March, 1994, W. Paul Strassman, review of Peasants versus City-dwellers, p. 329.

USA Today, October 2, 2006, Russ Juskalian, review of Making Globalization Work, p. 9.

U.S. Banker, March, 2004, Michael Dumiak, review of The Roaring Nineties, p. 16.

U.S. News & World Report, September 18, 2006, Alex Kingsbury, "The World Is Not Flat," p. 28.

U.S. Newswire, September 28, 2006, "Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, to Speak at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs."

Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2002, Brink Lindsey, review of Globalization and Its Discontents, p. D7.

World Watch, January-February, 2007, Hilary French, "Nobel Laureate Calls for ‘Greening’ of Globalization," p. 5.

ONLINE

Business Week Online,http://www.businessweek.com/ (November 19, 2001), interview with Joseph Stiglitz.

Columbia University Business School Web site,http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/ (November 13, 2007), biographical information on Joseph Stiglitz.