Robert Mundell

Infobox Scientist
name = Robert Mundell


image_size = 180px
birth_date = Birth date and age|1932|10|24|mf=y
birth_place = Kingston, Ontario, Canada
residence = United States
nationality = Canada
field = Economics
work_institution = Columbia University
alma_mater = University of British Columbia
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
doctoral_advisor = Charles Kindleberger
doctoral_students = Rudi Dornbusch
Jacob Frenkel
Michael Mussa
known_for = Mundell-Fleming model
Optimum currency areas
Research on the gold standard
prizes = Nobel Prize in Economics (1999)

Robert Alexander Mundell C.C. (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:
* Theoretical work on optimum currency areas.
* Contributions to the development of the euro
* Helped start the movement known as supply-side economics.
* Historical research on the operation of the gold standard in different eras.
* Predicted the inflation of the 1970s.
* Mundell-Fleming model
* Mundell-Tobin effect

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. [ [http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/may01/friedman.pdf Mundell-Friedman debate] ]

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 Fact|date=July 2007- 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 [ [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/exclusives/wahoo/archive/2002/10/archive17.shtml show #1891] ] where he gave The Top 10 List on "Ways My Life has Changed Since Winning the Nobel Prize." In March of 2004 [ [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/exclusives/wahoo/archive/2004/03/archive29.shtml show #2144] ] he told "You might be a redneck" jokes followed in May of 2004 [ [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/exclusives/wahoo/archive/2004/05/archive04.shtml show #2162] ] with "Yo Mama" jokes. In September of 2004 [ [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/exclusives/wahoo/archive/2004/09/archive22.shtml show # 2238] ] he appeared again, this time to read excerpts from Paris Hilton's memoir at random moments throughout the show. In November of 2005 [ [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/exclusives/wahoo/archive/2005/11/archive23.shtml show #2466] ] he told a series of Rodney Dangerfield's jokes. On February 7, 2006 [ [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/exclusives/wahoo/archive/2006/02/archive07.shtml show #2505] ] 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.

ee also

*List of economists
*Optimum currency area

Referencess

External links

* [http://www.robertmundell.net/ Robert Mundell's homepage]
* [http://www.singleglobalcurrency.org/ Single Global Currency Association - Bretton Woods 2024]
* [http://alop.atspace.com/tui/mundell-press.html his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas.]
* [http://vvvvvvvv.scriptmania.com/newfolder/megaw/nb/Mundell.htm Economista canadiense. Profesor en la Columbia University de New York.]
* [http://ca.geocities.com/econ_0909meet/mundell-speech-press.html The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences]
* [http://www.uni-kiel.de/ifw/konfer/wwp/wwp_e.htm The Kiel Institute Global Economy Prize]
* [http://nobelprize.org/economics/laureates/1999/mundell-bio.html Nobel biography for laureate Mundell]
* [http://ideas.repec.org/e/pmu18.html IDEAS/RePEc]

Persondata
NAME= Mundell, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Economist
DATE OF BIRTH= October 24, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH= Kingston, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=