Joseph Stiglitz
Joseph Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, ForMemRS, FBA, is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciencesand the John Bates Clark Medal. He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of theCouncil of Economic Advisers. He is known for his critical view of the management of globalization, laissez-faire economists, and some international institutions like the International Monetary...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth9 February 1943
CountryUnited States of America
The question is whether it'll be a stable country, will it be a country in which a diversity of views, open transparency, women's rights are recognized. The likelihood of that remains very low.
The life prospects of an American are more dependent on the income and education of his parents than in any of the other advanced industrial countries.
I think that for the developing world there are many versions of capitalism, and countries have to choose one that's appropriate.
Unfettered market American-style capitalism doesn't work. Developing countries can't afford that kind of luxury. They just can't afford it. Period. If there's a mistake, they can't afford to put out $2 trillion.
In developing countries, lack of infrastructure is a far more serious barrier to trade than tariffs.
No one would look just at a firm's revenues to assess how well it was doing. Far more relevant is the balance sheet, which shows assets and liability. That is also true for a country.
If you're injured in an automobile accident, and you sue the driver, you get much more for your injury than if you're fighting for your country. There's a double standard here.
Drug companies spend more on advertising and marketing than on research, more on research on lifestyle drugs than on life saving drugs, and almost nothing on diseases that affect developing countries only. This is not surprising. Poor people cannot afford drugs, and drug companies make investments that yield the highest returns.
Governments can enhance growth by increasing inclusiveness. A country's most valuable resource is its people. So it is essential to ensure that everyone can live up to their potential, which requires educational opportunities for all.
My research in this period centered around growth, technical change, and income distribution, both how growth affected the distribution of income and how the distribution of income affected growth.
The question is whether some of the fears of last year will be realized this year. There is strong reason to worry.
China's growth has been export-based, but it may be difficult for it to sustain the pace of export growth.
China has been selling a lot of goods to the West, particularly to the US, but at the same time it has been providing the money to provide the goods.
Greenspan's irresponsible support of that tax cut was critical to its passage.