Biography

Joseph E. Stiglitz is an economist and is currently a Professor at Columbia University in New York, USA. He is also co-chair of the High-Level Expert Panel on Measuring Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD and Chief Economist at the Roosevelt Institute.

Previously,  he was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank and a member and president of the Council of Economic Advisers  under  Bill Clinton. In 2000,  he founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University.

Winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel in 2001 - with George Akerlof and Michael Spence - Joseph E. Stiglitz is often presented as belonging to the Neo-Keynesian movement that emerged in the 1980s in response to the new classical economy.

As he himself said in 2007: "The theories to which I (and others) have contributed explain why markets free of restriction often do not lead to any form of social justice. Moreover, they do not generate enough revenue. Curiously, there was no attempt to challenge Adam Smith's theory of the invisible hand: individuals and companies, in their quest for their own interests, are not necessarily, or generally, guided by an invisible hand towards economic efficiency.”

Professor Stiglitz is the author of major contributions to macroeconomic and monetary theory, the analysis of development and international trade, the study of finance, inequality and the distribution of wealth, welfare economics, among many other topics. His scientific work is immense.

He is also the author of numerous books aimed at citizens, which have mostly become bestsellers, enabling a wide audience to have a better understanding of economic, social and political issues today. In 2011, Joseph E. Stiglitz was nominated by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.