Joseph Stiglitz

Lore & Background

Stiglitz was born in Gary, Indiana into a Jewish family. He attended Amherst College as a National Merit Scholar, active on the debate team and president of the student government. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for graduate work, and later held a research fellowship at the University of Cambridge. He has held academic positions at Yale, Stanford, Oxford, and Princeton, and has been a professor at Columbia University since 2001.

Stiglitz served in the Clinton administration as chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (1995–1997) and at the World Bank as senior vice president and chief economist (1997–2000), from which he was fired for expressing dissent with its policies. He founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue in 2000 and chaired the U.N. Commission on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System in 2009. He also chaired the international Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, appointed by French President Sarkozy.

Reader's Guide

Stiglitz's significance lies in his foundational contributions to the economics of information asymmetry, particularly the concept of screening, for which he shared the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize. His work on the Henry George theorem demonstrated that local public goods can be optimally funded through land rent capture. He has been a prominent critic of free-market fundamentalism and international financial institutions, advocating for Georgist public finance and income distribution. His policy roles, including chairing the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers and the U.N. commission on monetary reform, have shaped debates on globalization and economic justice. Stiglitz remains a highly cited author on college syllabi and a leading voice on inequality and social progress.

Did You Know?

• Stiglitz was fired by the World Bank for expressing dissent with its policies.
• He is the fifth most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses, according to the Open Syllabus Project.
• He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2011.
• Stiglitz served as president of the International Economic Association from 2011 to 2014.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Most poor people earn more than minimum wage when they are working; their problem is not low wages.

The problem comes when they are not working." — Joseph Stiglitz "The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there." — Joseph Stiglitz "Quoted in Daniel Altman, "Managing Globalization: Q & A with Joseph Stiglitz", The International Herald Tribune (2006-10-11)." — Joseph Stiglitz "Bleakonomics" The New York Times Sunday Book Review (2007-09-30)." — Joseph Stiglitz