Joseph Stiglitz-No big deal, being a Nobel laureate and all

I can't help but think our obsession with inequality is a result of the tremendous efforts of research, publications, and other media resulting from Joseph Stiglitz's lifetime of dedication to the matter.  Granted, I frequently wonder if academics like Stiglitz get the idea to research such topics as a result of endless complaining and frequent berating of the bureaucracy for their decisions on the matter, but who am I to know.  Back to our economist at hand with a little formal background for all the geeks out there, like me--from the beginning, Stiglitz has been a brilliant and influential economist.  He earned his undergraduate degree from MIT and continued his research there while pursuing a PhD until the late 60s.  It was then he left for Cambridge and studied as a Fulbright scholar for the last 4 years of the decade.  Following formal schooling up to present day, Stiglitz taught at the most prestigious of universities throughout the nation including Yale, Stanford, and Oxford.

On to the fun stuff--Stiglitz's research is world renowned and his list of publications and media outlets is so extensive that his vita is 73 pages long.  That's 73 pages of listing accomplishments, including more than 45 honorary doctorates.  I completely geeked out looking over this CV and anyone that wants to see impressive accomplishments should check it out.  One of the most notable accomplishments of Joseph Stiglitz is winning the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, for his research on the "analysis of markets with asymmetric information."  I won't bore you with the details of this research, but it should be noted it was investigated with well-known economists Akerlof and Spence.

In conjunction with his successful career as a professor and scholar, Stiglitz also contributed, significantly, throughout political history.  As the chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, Stiglitz advised President Clinton on a number of economic matters including climate change.  A topic on which he co-authored a book "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

I could go on for pages on Stiglitz's accomplishments, but the accomplishment, or research, I find to be most intriguing is that which I feel is most relevant to today's world. In his most recent book publication titled "The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them" he continues on from a book he wrote in 2012, about the inequality of the American Society and how it should be counter-acted.  I look forward to the opportunity to read and understand these publications at a higher level in the near future.  On a side note: there is a video called "Inequality for All" hosted by Robert Reich, (who served with Stiglitz in Clinton's cabinet) that is a nice compliment to Stiglitz's work (and I recommend all of you uber-nerds like me to catch it on Netflix).

Stiglitz is currently a Professor at the Columbia Business School.

Information courtesy of:

josephstiglitz.com
nobelprize.org