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Robert Mundell
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Robert Alexander Mundell, CC (born October 24, 1932) is a professor of economics at Columbia University. Mundell was born in Canada and is a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he obtained his PhD in Economics in 1956. He also attended the London School of Economics and was a top performer in his years there. He went on to win the 1999 Nobel Prize in Economics. Since 1974 he has been a professor in the Economics department at Columbia University; since 2001 he has held Columbia's highest academic rank - University Professor.
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Encyclopedia
Robert Alexander Mundell, CC (born October 24, 1932) is a professor of economics at Columbia University. Mundell was born in Canada and is a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he obtained his PhD in Economics in 1956. He also attended the London School of Economics and was a top performer in his years there. He went on to win the 1999 Nobel Prize in Economics. Since 1974 he has been a professor in the Economics department at Columbia University; since 2001 he has held Columbia's highest academic rank - University Professor. He was also economics professor at McGill University and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. In 2002 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. Robert Mundell, chair of economics at University of Waterloo in the 1970s, laid the groundwork for the introduction of the euro through his pioneering work in monetary dynamics and optimum currency forms for which he won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Economics.
In June 2005 he was awarded the Global Economics Prize World Economics Institute in Kiel, Germany and in September 2005 he was made a Cavaliere di Gran Croce del Reale Ordine del Merito sotto il Titolo di San Ludovico by Principe Don Carlo Ugo di Borbone Parma.
The Mundell International University of Entrepreneurship in the Zhongguancun district of Beijing, People's Republic of China is named in his honor.
Among his major contributions are:
International monetary flows
Mundell is best known in politics for his support of tax cuts and supply-side economics; however, among economists it is his work on currency areas and international exchange rates which caused him to be awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel by the Bank of Sweden (Sveriges Riksbank). Nevertheless, supply side economics featured prominently in his Bank of Sweden prize speech.
In the 1960s Canada, of which Mundell is a native, floated its exchange - this caused Mundell to begin investigating the results of floating exchange rates, a phenomenon not widely seen since the 1930s "Stockholm School" successfully lobbied Sweden to leave the gold standard.
In 1962, along with Marcus Fleming, he co-authored the Mundell-Fleming model of exchange rates, and noted that it was impossible to have domestic autonomy, price stability, and free capital flows - that two, and only two, of these objectives could be met. The model is, in effect, an extension of the IS/LM model applied to currency rates.
According to Mundell's analysis:
- Discipline under the Bretton Woods system was more due to the US Federal Reserve than to the discipline of gold.
- Demand side fiscal policy would be ineffective in restraining central banks under a floating exchange rate system.
- Single currency zones relied, therefore, on similar levels of price stability, where a single monetary policy would suffice for all.
His analysis led to his conclusion that it was a disagreement between Europe and the United States over the rate of inflation, partially to finance the Vietnam War, and that Bretton Woods disintegrated because of the undervaluing of gold and the consequent monetary discipline breakdown. There is a famous point/counter-point over this issue between Mundell and Milton Friedman.
This work would later lead to the creation of the euro, and his prediction that leaving the Bretton Woods system would lead to "stagflation" so long as highly progressive income tax rates applied. In 1974 he advocated a drastic tax reduction and a flattening of income tax rates.
Mundell, though lionized by some conservatives, has many of his harshest critics from the right: he denies the need for a fixed gold based currency or currency board - though he often recommends this as a policy in hyper-inflationary environments - and he is both a fiscal and balance of payments deficit hawk. He is well known for stating that in a floating exchange rate system, expansion of the money supply can only come about through a positive balance of payments.
Television
Robert Mundell has appeared on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman. His first appearance was in October 2002 where he gave The Top 10 List on "Ways My Life has Changed Since Winning the Nobel Prize." In March of 2004 he told "You might be a redneck" jokes followed in May of 2004 with "Yo Mama" jokes. In September of 2004 he appeared again, this time to read excerpts from Paris Hilton's memoir at random moments throughout the show. In November of 2005 he told a series of Rodney Dangerfield's jokes. On February 7, 2006 he read Grammy Award nominated song lyrics, the night before CBS aired the 48th Grammy Awards.
Robert Mundell has also appeared on China Central Television's popular Lecture Room series.
See also
External links
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